#compared to when I would draw traditionally anyway

[kaeldra]

man where would I be now if I had gotten an art tablet in high school like I wanted

#kael.txt #I bought one in June and even though I haven't used it /that/ much my improvement has been by leaps and bounds #compared to when I would draw traditionally anyway #I always thought it was too expensive to ask for or that I wouldn't use it or whatever #but at least I finally got one! #I'm having a blast

[luolands]

Den Thelyss Canon

c2e57: You can see people of the drow populace sitting and reading and paying strange attention to you. Once again, it's hard not to draw attention when you guys pass by with one of the members of Den Thelyss.

Essek, c2e62: Most of my den live within the Lucid Bastion.

Essek, c2e57: The den was very kind to accept me for one as comparably young as myself. I'm only part way into my second century, so. Caleb: A great honor. Essek: It is. Anyway.

Essek, c2e62: There's three primary dens, and a dozen dens all together. Fjord: Biylan's not one of the main three, though? Essek: No. Thelyss is one.

Essek, c2e91: My mother's name is Deirta Thelyss, she is the Umavi of my den. Jester: Which den, Thelyss den? Essek: Den Thelyss, yes. One of the multitude of dens.. shall we sit?

EGtW: The three ruling Dens—Den Kryn, Den Thelyss, and Den Mirimm—are each helmed by an Umavi.

Essek, c2e91: Den Thelyss, they would like very much to see.. our nation.. established and respected? In the broader sense of the world.

Wrap-up: The only real bond Essek had before any of you was with him, growing up. Verin was the brother that kinda got him and they got along okay, in a family that Essek did not get along with at all, and was surrounded by people he didn't get along with.

Wrap-up: He'd been a solitary figure his whole life except for his relationship with his brother. He didn't get along with his parents. He didn't get along with most people in the Dynasty unless they helped him maintain and advance his position of power and influence, and so.. you guys fucked him up!

Wrap-up: As opposed to his brother, who's very much eschewed the Dynasty culture, and his parents were very deeply steeped in the culture. Verin rides the line where, he understands, why his brother is the way he is, but he also believes a lot in the Dynasty, and the faith that the Luxon and the whole idea gives.

Essek, c2e91: There is an expectation of advancement within the faith to be consecuted. I was lucky enough and privileged enough to be born within a den to where it was not questioned.

Essek, c2e91: You are guided by an Umavi through a soul binding process. It is extensive, it entails a bunch of spoken rites. It is usually observed by many individuals of various dens, especially if you belong to one. And often when you are consecuted, you are given a path to a den. The families are expansive.

EGtW: Each Den traditionally oversees a portion of local industry, but more distinguished Dens also vie for control over aspects of spiritual or military leadership.

Fjord, c2e57: What do we call you, just Shadowhand? Or is there another name you prefer? Essek: Shadowhand Essek Thelyss. Of Den Thelyss. Jester: Den Thelyss is, like, the most popular one. Nott: Sure, we know it well. That's one of the top three, is that right? Essek: It is indeed.

Leylas, c2e57: Your deed here is noted and what quarrel you have with Lythir here is seen as absolved in the eyes of us three dens.

Waccoh, c2e62: There'd be a period of time in approving of his presence to ensure that there isn't any sort of Empire interests or muck behind the history there. After which we'd have to go and get approvals from Den Thelyss.

Caleb, c2e91: And you are, forgive me, on your first life? Essek: Yes, I'm nearly the youngest of my den.

EGtW: Essek is both respected and feared for his intelligence and cunning, and he carefully plots each step he takes to further his and his Den's climb up the hierarchy of the dynasty.

EGtW: Verin Thelyss is the younger brother of Essek and the youngest soul of Den Thelyss. Recently given command of Kryn forces in Bazzoxan, Verin hopes to bring about a victory for the dynasty that will grant him respect and acceptance from his accomplished family.

Abrianna, c2e57: When one has proven their faith through word and deed, they are claimed by one of the ruling dens and taken to be soul bound to the Luxon through the consecution.

EGtW: Not all ruling Dens like the idea of introducing what they consider lesser creatures into the consecution, leading to tensions between the people of Rosohna and the scattered villages in the Xhorhasian wilds.

Beau, c2e91: What's the worst thing you've ever done? Essek: (laughs, sighs) I would say... anger my father to the point where... he went, unprepared, into the depths of Bazzoxan and didn't return.

EGtW: The ruling class of the dynasty is seated in Rosohna, spread across twelve noble Dens—all of whom seek to one day rule the dynasty. They play an intricate political game by expanding their families of timeless souls and covertly undermining the authority of other Dens.

EGtW: Den Masters keep a careful eye out for weakness among other Dens, seeking ways to sully the reputations of their rivals while displaying their own worthiness to the Bright Queen. Such social sabotage is reminiscent of the old ways of the drow, but assassinations and acts of outright violence are rare. 

EGtW: The oldest Dens, especially those helmed by an Umavi, are held in the highest esteem, and generally answer directly to the Bright Queen. The older the soul, the more prestige it holds in the dynasty.

EGtW: Within the Lucid Bastion's halls, the Bright Queen, her trusted Umavi, and their Dens work to govern and protect all citizens of the Kryn Dynasty.

EGtW: Beneath the Dens of Rosohna, guilds and Den representatives govern the other cities of the dynasty that stretch across Xhorhas, spreading the faith of the Luxon and watching over all Xhorhasians who seek the safety of civilization.

#essek thelyss #Essek #den thelyss #deirta thelyss #deirta #dierta #verin thelyss #verin #thelyss brothers #kryn dynasty #crit role #cr2 #cr campaign 2 #campaign 2 #critical role #mighty nein #the mighty nein #m9 #shadowgast #caleb widogast #fjord stone #jester lavorre #leylas kryn

[sneakydraws]

i wanna see fifty five goldfinch pieces 💔💔

OKAY!! So I have this little series I like to call the great decompartmentalisation of Theo decker... Let me walk you through it. I promise there's art after the massive paragraph of meandering analysis alright

You know how Theo's life is segmented into these distinct episodes? And how he himself is split into multiple different identities, and how much shame and fear there is associated with the idea of those identities mixing? For example: the straight a student living a completely, delusionally idyllic life with his adoring mother and the vanilla teenage troublemaker breaking into people's summer homes with his shady homoerotic bestie. When the two identities come into contact via his suspension, it leads to the most traumatic event in Theo's life, and honestly I suspect that might be the origin of this tendency towards compartmentalisation... I could go through the whole book here but the most prominent examples are Theo panicking at the thought of Mrs Barbour or his therapist finding out about Hobie, his cutting himself off from New York when in Vegas with his other shady homoerotic bestie (the amount of times Vegas is compared to an alien planet...) and his dual post timeskip identifies of charming antiques salesman/fraudulent art stealing junkie. And this often manifests in Theo's reluctance to let people from his different periods interact - see him rushing to stop Boris from talking to Pippa, and him keeping Hobie in the dark about the blackmail, and isn't it kind of weird that the barbours - Theo's soon to be legal family - don't really interact with Hobie and Pippa? Anyway. Basically I thought it would be cool to make a series of little vignettes of theo allowing the people and places and things that represent various versions of Him to interact and thus symbolically healing the disconnected parts of himself... Or something. I have more ideas scribbled down but somehow the only ones I ended up with proper art for is the various holidays (which, holidays are also a weirdly prevalent theme in tgf? Idk whats up with that but it's a good tool for this purpose) so we have:

Christmas Eve at Boris's, featuring Pippa and Hobie - I feel kinda bad for only ever portraying Boris with polish customs but let's be real I'm just using him to show off my own heritage lol. In Poland the main Xmas celebrations happen on Xmas Eve, traditionally with the appearance of the first star in the sky. You eat the mostly inoffensive barszcz as well some truly vile shit, such as mushroom and cabbage dumplings, mushroom and cabbage salad, other items made of mushrooms and cabbage, and finally the most disgusting dish of my life: Jewish style carp. No, it's not quite the same thing as gefiltefish, although that's the Wikipedia page you might use to get to the actual dish. All washed down with compote which I hate. You also break and eat communion wafers while wishing each other stuff, which Pippa is doing with popchyk here hehe

Christmas breakfast as a little bonus despite it not having much of a tradition - I associate it with lots of hams/cured meats, gherkins and maybe Tatar sauce (yum). Much superior to the Xmas dinner imho. Really I just wanted Theo and Boris to have a moment to themselves haha

Christmas proper at the barbours, featuring Boris and Tom cable! I could talk about all the tension and who's diffusing it but honestly I think y'all can draw your own conclusions lol. I just think it would be really funny for the infamous dis-engaged couple to each bring their delinquent boytoys and for Boris the drug dealer to actually come out looking superior

Vegetarian friendly Thanksgiving at Hobie's, as tradition requires! I think he'd love to throw one of his big Thanksgiving parties purely for all of Theo's families to get to know each other... you know, kind of an elaboration on that Thanksgiving illustration I drew a while back! This would be before all the Christmases I think. Boris is winning Mrs Barbour over with his roguish charm lol I think old ladies would like him... Theo in the corner freaking the hell out as per this project's mission statement lmao

And on a slightly different note I wanted Theo Pippa and Hobie to all visit weltys grave. I'm borrowing slightly from the polish tradition of all saint's day, when you clean, decorate and light candles on the graves of loved ones.

#the goldfinch #theodore decker #pippa blackwell #james hobart #boris pavlikovsky #kitsey barbour #samantha barbour #platt barbour #toddy barbour #popchyk #featuring: toddy as the eternal peacekeeper and also mrs Barbours dogs #whose breeds i cant be bothered to check lol #boreo #tom cable #ask #anonymous

[darkcircles4lyfe]

You've written about queer rep and implied queer rep in MHA so I was wondering what are your thoughts on Aoyama? In the beginning of the series most of the audience assumes that he's gay or queer because he's feminine or not traditionally masculine, and I also assumed that his line about being 'different' was a not-so-subtle reference to him being gay. But flash forward!! That 'different' line is actually foreshadowing him being quirkless. I personally see this as Horikoshi playing with people's expectations and assumptions again. The joke was on the audience for assuming that behaving feminine = gay when there's really no way to 'behave gay', it's just social norms. Aoyama got a plotline with flaws and conflicts beyond what the audience initially assumed and it has nothing to do with being queer at all. He could still be queer, but the rep is casual just like Tiger. Horikoshi disguising quirklessness with perceived queerness caused the audience to miss the foreshadowing from a mile away. It's also interesting how Aoyama and Deku are supposed to be compared since they're both quirkless kids. Aoyama, the guy the fandom perceives as queer, being paralleled with Deku... perhaps another hint to Deku being canonically queer as well? I really wanna hear your thoughts on this haha

You know that song, “Gay or European?” Haha. Anyway.

I’m glad you brought this up because it appears to be yet another example of Horikoshi planting an obvious looking trope, only to subvert our expectations. And it’s funny because it worked perfectly. If you ask the average cishet fan, they would most likely concede that Aoyama is not straight. Even a homophobe would agree. And thus we all had to deal with the excuse, “Deku can’t be gay! Look! *points to Aoyama* this is how The Creator draws gay people!” He’s the Gay One. End of discussion. But I’m sure Horikoshi’s intent was mostly on disguising Aoyama’s angst about being quirkless and a traitor, like you said. I think it’s cool that his backstory ends up being totally unrelated to his potential queer identity. It laughs in the face of those who wrote him off as a flat stereotype.

When you think about it that way, Horikoshi must have made the connection that the angst around being quirkless is similar, and can even be seen as a metaphor for queerness. He’s aware of the double entendre. So I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that there is also queer coding involved in comparing Aoyama and Izuku for their similar backgrounds. For the longest time, we were led to believe they have something in common, but were not told what that was. Of course Horikoshi must have known how that sounded.

That’s why I’m not so sure he used Aoyama to intentionally deflect attention away from other potentially queer characters. Idk, but the idea doesn’t sit right with me. People made this assumption that if he made some characters obviously and explicitly queer, then he wouldn’t try to be sneaky with others. But that’s kinda disingenuous. Aoyama definitely does still service the whole general picture of the manga seeming predictable at first glance, though. I just don’t think Horikoshi was like “I’ll make this character obviously queer so no one suspects Izuku” because again, he makes an effort to draw attention to their similarities. It goes over the cishet audience’s heads, but it’s there for anyone who is familiar with the more nuanced intentions and methods of queer coding. Maybe that’s the whole genius master plan, to fool the straights, but do a little wink wink nudge nudge for the rest of us so we’re in on the game.

#asks #lin speaks #bnha meta #aoyama yuuga #midoriya izuku #bkdk #bakudeku #dkbk #dekubaku

[melodraca]

Hey! I saw in one of your posts, in the tags, that you were an English major. I'm going to college soon, and I was wondering if you had any advice on picking out your major. What do you like about majoring in English, and what exactly do English majors do? Thank you!

First of all, congrats! That's really exciting! I really hope you enjoy your time in college! Second, this is gonna be a bit long, so I apologize in advance o7

I'm honestly not sure how helpful this is, but for the longest time I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I actually enrolled in university as a mature student a good 5-ish years after I graduated high school. I was so tired of school-related stress (and the way that the public school system functioned in general) that I was honestly considering not even going to post-secondary. I bounced between different potential majors, although I couldn't help but feel tired just thinking about them, like I would be going to school out of obligation or societal expectation rather than genuine passion.

When I came back around to the idea years later, I started poking around my local university's website. As I was going through, reading everything over, and clicking through different subjects, I realized that I was actually really feeling excited about school for the first time... pretty much ever. Because I realized that I had the chance to do things at my own pace, with a focus on subjects that I actually liked, rather than what my family expected would get me a traditionally "good job."

I narrowed my major down to a choice between English and creative writing, but I ultimately went with English. As much as I love creative writing, I prefer doing it as a hobby. It's the same with art for me: getting too serious with it made me feel less passionate and creative (to be fair though, I did take two first year creative writing classes as electives and I am genuinely proud of the stuff I wrote for them!)

With English, I could do my favourite thing in the world: overthinking literature and talking ad nauseam about the media I like. I love rambling, and writing essays is pretty much just organized info-dumping. I also wanted to learn more about history and culture, especially the way that they influence and are influenced by the works of literature, film, etc. of the times. In my experience so far, English classes have mostly consisted of reading or watching a bunch of texts, analyzing them & picking them apart, discussing said texts with my peers, and comparing/contextualizing them with each other. It's way more fun for me than it probably sounds to most people haha

Side note: I'm also taking biology as a minor (specifically with a focus on zoology because I love animals). The contrast between using the more creative and writerly side of my brain, and the more logical sciencey and side works well for me.

I'm still not super career focused, though I have certainly thought about it. I'm on disability support right now, so thankfully I'm fortunate enough to not need to juggle work and school. Ideally, I would love it if my degree landed me a stable job that doesn't make me feel miserable or put the same strain on me that retail and food service do. But I'm kinda just going with the flow for now.

Anyways, that's all to say: look over all of your options and narrow it down to the ones that draw your interest and passion the most. Consider what you want out of school, explore the potential career options that each subject could bring if that's your goal, and generally go with what makes you feel the best.

I know most schools have exploratory courses and academic advisors that can help you figure out what you want to do, so I would definitely look into that! Oh, and look into the required classes for each subject too! It personally helped me organize and prepare for everything I would need to do so that I was less blind-sighted by, as an example, my mandatory statistics class for my biology minor (I'm DEFINITELY not a math person)

Good luck, and I'm sorry again for how long this got! I wish you the best :D

#asks #gabeposting #it's like 2am rn so I hope this actually makes sense and isn't just me rambling #thanks for the ask btw!!

[onewomancitadel]

I answered an anon rather pithily about people (I don't know these people) drawing reference from the Disney Cinderella in the context of Knightfall, and whilst I cannot attest to the veracity of this observation, let me seriously comment on the idea a little further. Firstly Disney is the cultural touchstone for fairytales, because they've otherwise plundered that cultural well for themselves (and done their best to control the copyright for it). So that's one influencing factor.

Another is that I think most people don't really know why or when RWBY employs allusion (and sometimes it's not always clear where their boundaries are), and as I've remarked elsewhere and under my Reverse Ozlem tag, it only makes sense insofar as the themes it's realising in the story. There's no reason to suspect Cinderella (the Disney version) playing out exactly as it does in the film, in RWBY proper. That's just not appropriate, and automatically is inappropriate because Cinder's story is not the selfsame as Cinderella's.

Obviously you can see the influence of the Brothers Grimm (not even the earliest iteration of Cinderella) - she rises up and kills her stepsisters. But is it only a Grimm reference, or something terrible Cinder was forced to do in those circumstances? You can't really only view it in terms of abstract allusion influence.

Likewise, it's not like Jaune would literally buy Cinder's freedom based on the Rhodopis influence. That's just everything-inappropriate. But it does make you think about his relation to her redemption arc nevertheless (and the fact Sappho's brother falls in love with Rhodopis). Then what's more, Rhodopis herself in Herodotus' account is considered an actual person in history, which is alike to Joan of Arc - part mythic, part historical (to a degree with Herodotus). What does that tell us about the relationship between their allusions and Ozlem? I don't think it can be taken that far, but it is an example of how far you can go (considering Ozlem is a 'real' fairytale).

What is interesting to think about is the idea of say, Prince Charming, in the RWBY context, because Jaune is so very much not a 'Prince Charming'. Not traditionally - and he's not an archetypal Huntsman - but that is in itself what makes him appropriate. You can't really say that xyz happens in one or the other Cinderella account because it's happening on the terms of the story. That comes first, then you start thinking about influences. Why reference Rhodopis? What is there being said about Rhodopis' twice-enslavement compared to Cinder's? What does it say about the cycle Cinder is trapped in? That's much more interesting to me.

Cinder's situation is painful, but I'd not say her story is a 'bad ending' Cinderella, so to speak, or at least only that; that's taking the allusions too flatly. Of course the idea I personally lean into is that her story's not over with, because she's Rhodopis, and she doesn't really realise it yet.

Anyway, food for thought.

#knightfall #user: anonymouse #<- continuing conversation #cinder and rhodopis

[robo-milky]

[Vent: This will be my last update about my wrists! Thank you for those who took the time to read and/or sent “get-well-soon”s- It does mean a lot! Anything relating to more personal issues can be very taxing to read or “not what I signed up for” and that’s perfectly valid!! In the end, we are strangers on the web ^^ Feels like the more I post updates or anything— it feels very attention seeking— so I want to make this a good send off. I might update/edit the log if anything comes up.]

A little bit about why the sudden change in art style

Acknowledgements: There are bigger issues in the world, there are threatening crises and positions people face that could be physically/and or emotionally damaging. My condition isn’t chronic, but for those who have do have life-long issues— my heart really goes out to them; I’ve only been through the tip of the iceberg of what they might have been through.

It’s hypocritical of me to make posts about having to recover/exhausting myself from writing/drawing, yet I still draw anyways. I guess I wanted to end this off comically— making silly memes or inside jokes with friends definitely lifted my mood. (Edit: I can’t type (on a keyboard)/write, but you know what I can do? Text.)

Having to do art in school and outside is not great for recovery (if I want both my wrists back to normal) but I compulsively draw anyways- I think it’s probably because I’m aiming for an art school, I’m scared of ever stopping and getting rusty with art again. While it’s true that a lot of art is really boiled down to how well you can break down concepts and memorizing the technical knowledge, it took me years to finally develop a hand that could draw clean lines and hold things steadily.

Compared to Summer 2022, I definitely recovered much more and made a lot of progress. I didn’t have to eat painkillers every single day, I didn’t have to rely on wrist splints, I can hold a half-filled mug with one hand, and so much more. I’d say the conditions of my wrists is tolerable; it still hinders me when I try to open doorknobs, but I’ll take whatever accomplishments I can get.

It wasn’t until finally seeing a physiotherapist, after god knows how long (Please- I grew up in a traditionally Chinese family that doesn’t believe in western medicines ;;), I was diagnosed with early osteoarthritis on my left wrist. Even though only one wrist is diagnosed, I have difficulties moving both my wrists, and according to my X-ray back in September 2022, the bones in both my wrist have narrowed from a lack of use. I’m kinda baffled because you’d think it’d be my dominant hand, the hand I use everyday and stress out, would be diagnosed. I’m told that I’ll need an MRI for my left, so hopefully nothing goes too wrong.

I love drawing, fanart or original— for myself or others. I don’t think it’s something I can ever stop? Maybe I’ve gotten on a high now that I’ve recovered bit by bit, and having gotten out of art block for months helped too. I can’t help but feel like part of my art block is because of my wrists. Even when my wrists were not as bad, I still couldn’t find the motivation to do line art. Maybe my current development in art isn’t actually laziness but just how my wrists have subconsciously been affecting my performance. When I looked back on my old art, I truly loved line art, rendering, having to press hard with pencil crayons to blend, oil pastels— I really did enjoy them.

If I ever drew gifts/requests/others for you, I want to say that I opened them because I wanted to— I knew what I was signing up for. Heck— when I did them— I did them on a good day.

* Am I ever going to take a break? I’ll be honest- probably not. Plus- the watercolour mimic style let’s me draw looser lines and with the colouring? I don’t have to worry about pen pressure or pressing hard- But I’ll try?? I might try to see if I can dig up any older art of mine that still holds up to my standards.

With school, I always feel like I have to take on extra jobs and volunteer to help out in areas that are within my field. I’ve also contemplated telling or broadcasting my needs to others because I’m always scared they’ll think I’m “being dramatic” or “faking it”. I’m also scared that the one time I ask for help to do a “simple” task, my peers will start questioning my recovery. I can’t describe how shameful it feels to not be able to help out a friend if they want to move a desk or even with chores. Maybe it’s me self projecting, but I always feel like if I can’t help someone, I’d be selfish.

Since I can never truly articulate my experiences and thoughts in person (cause I’d forget details or cut out too much because I feel rushed), I’ll be using this to send out ^^

If you *actually* read all of this- thank you and please don’t think too much of it! I don’t want this post to be the reason someone’s mood gets drained— so I drew the cat maid instead of putting my usual reaction images. I hope my attempt at humour came through?? But at what cost…

#my art #meowing 🌸 #vent art #vent #personal vent #cw vent #vent post

[fairymint]

🎈 How does your muse relate to gender dynamics in their world? Is it different from IRL? (Felix ofc)

Well, this question falls under optional lore since pokemon is a huge fandom; there are followers I have who write escapism and followers who write dark topics.

But there is lore. Basically, world-building wise, bigotry and gender dynamics stem from the 'Alpha Wolves' cult/ideology, spreading historically from Galar the way it would have IRL, minus the guns; instead they weaponized dogs.

Pokemon seems like a place that is ahead of reality in progressiveness, but only by a little- a consequence of probably many things, such as easier travel, the weapons being living creatures, and a culture of love- ask many IRL an adult and many deem life just being unfair, independent- I don't see that streak in this world; aka i don't see bullies getting far/too violent without a team to back them up.

Anyways, Felix is in conflict about gender dynamics as a trans gay man born in the 90s. There's thought patterns, internalized toxicity, that bubbles up and causes him to take caution- I'm leery of strangers IRL that are 'too' nice to me because they might be about to misgender me. I don't wear makeup IRL because i don't pass as male 'enough' and am not comfortable yet. Because he's very small and 'cute' and such, he's not confident that other men will have genuine sexual interest for him- masc4masc gay culture at work, the want to appear more 'adult' and/or earn love. passing as a 'little boy' is both a trans and dwarfism thing;; and just trying to be gender euphoric without being misogynist/transphobic himself.

and, for the sake of my comfort and world building, his transition was fairly quick- i don't really wish to RP 'in-between' states, such as the wait for top surgery, bottom growth, voice dropping, etc.- I've had to drop contact with somebody over clearly preferring him pre-transition, and while i do still relate hard to the nonbinary agenda™️ mid-transition, I'm working on it. I'm not rlly comfortable with they/them due to terfs but i try to be kind/understanding. like, i still have boobs irl and i hate it. i don't trust nsfw themed blogs because the possibility for chaser behaviour ooc is high. consider a lot of that kind of stuff happening offscreen/off the radar. He just sort of reappeared in Alola under a new name and gender- only real exceptions being ORAS and Magikarp Jump with they/them pronouns. But, he's been blessed with very dramatic changes, when some trans guys get Nothing for any one change.

Ideally, he's so comfortable in his masculinity that he likes to be fruity sometimes- but he's still for the time being a bit shy about it, especially compared to my other, more traditionally masculine muses. He's a baby gay growing into his masculinity(/femme queerness), but is recognized as male by society. He's not used to the top energy side of himself; he grew up wanted as a 'bottom'.

IRL wise....i get hit by dysphoria here and there, especially with faceclaims. there's a fine balance between my personal style, looking as young as i do IRL, looking old 'enough'.....and y'know the work involved in finding or drawing shit and fkdgjkd. As well as enough expressions to work with- that's top priority.

facial hair's working wonders for my gender presentation, but I'm waiting for more. I'm waiting for surgery. I'm waiting to be 'There' tbh. my mixed passing is leaning into male.

#ask. #felix fae. #trans talk. #ask to tag #bigotry mention #internalized transphobia tw #transphobia tw #long post

[clairethecutepup]

Weekly Update: 3/11-3/19

Paragraphs ahead for: comic work, fan work, comic advice, advertising plans, gaming...

Jeez, why can't I seem to remember that Saturdays are when I'm supposed to post these? Aw well, at least it's being posted on a weekly basis, ja? So then, let's get into it...

I'm wrapping up the sketching portion of Puppy Eyes and Doll Eyes' 7th page, and I've learned how to make lines less blurry: I need to alter the resolution before any potential drawing, and harden the lines for extra crispness. Hopefully, that fixes my little "fuzziness" problem...

Also, I've been thinking about blazing the entirety of Puppy Eyes and Doll Eyes in a future post. I mean, I'll be doing a post with all the pages together, for viewer convenience, anyway. You see, I figured it'd be the best way to show my comic-related works to the world, via making posts with 50-ish comic "pages" to view. I know, I said I wouldn't do "blaze" posts with fan-related work, but work samples are work samples, ja? Hopefully, I'll have better luck in gathering a following and building up potential franchises, if I use the visual medium of comics, rather than simply posting chapter images with the accompanying paragraphs of literature.

Of course, I'm not just using a comic-styled medium for reasons of "easier attention-grabbing" alone, I also enjoy the idea of utilizing visuals/drawings than simple text walls. Why do you think I decided to add chapter images to Getting Your Goat, back when I stuck to mostly literary forms of entertainment? Plus, I feel like my art style would help my works be seen as more iconic/recognizable, compared to just a familiar writing style and the like. If you're gonna get anywhere, people gotta recognize your works as YOUR works, ja? Can't just rely on my blonde, little wolf-hybrid mascot to always tell you you're viewing something of mine.

Speaking of comic work, I really suggest doing it digitally for convenience sake. After all, do it traditionally and you'll be having a rougher/longer time altering outlines, panels and whatever else that'll take you a few seconds digitally. Sure, I won't tell you to fix what's not broken, nor am I demanding you forsake traditional art; but I will give recommendations where recommendations are seen fit. Of course, I don't want to forego traditional art myself, but I think I'll save it for reference sheets and other things that don't involve a bit more... "complexity," I guess is the word?

In relation to the workings of Puppy Eyes and Doll Eyes, as well as the over all desire to make a fan comic series based on the "Assassin AU" of Ed Edd n Eddy, I admit a bit of nervousness toward people's potential reactions regarding Claire. No, I wanna include Claire and include her as is, so she's getting included and included as is: namely, animal-hybrids recently being made as the "perfect tool" for the organization's assassins.

Of course, there'd be hints the organization also plans to eventually make the dubbed "Werebeasts" independent enough, so it can MAKE its own and better brand of assassins, rather than spending the time/effort into abducting and grooming people as kids. At least, I think that's supposed to be the AU's backstory: they were taken by the spaceship, in the "Invasion of the Eds" episode, and "trained" into their assassin lifestyles?

However, you don't get anywhere in life when you're too scared to do anything, so I'll suck it up and see what happens. The important thing is, as long as Claire doesn't hog the spotlight nor be more Mary-Sue than character, it should be fine. Plus, I'm sure some of the EEnE fandom would appreciate the "Assassin AU" making a comeback, characters like Claire present or not.

In matters unrelated to creative workings, I've finally gotten Pizza Tower, and I love it! It's fun to take the slow, steady pacing of platforming while exploring the levels-- and then run like HECK, Sonic the Hedgehog style!! I don't think I'll go for all "P" ranks, nor even one, as I like my games to be fun. Instead, I'll go for the collectibles and find all the secrets!

Anyway, till later!

#ed edd n eddy #comics #advice #weekly update #fan comics #original comics #assassin au #expressing concerns #visual mediums #digital drawing #pizza tower #planning #literature vs comics

[halt-kun]

Hunter x Hunter Chapter 166 - Face-Off (9)

Last one for tonight

We’re pretty good

Gon is sweating a lot from his two rocks, it is really tiring for him

I hope he can take a shower after this because it must have been a while since he’s been in game

Tsezguerra is the only one considering the state of the player

he’s also a bit of a pessimist anyway

They are indeed in bad shape but they look cool and pretty good in those panels !

Killua is indeed very hurt

But look at how he can still smile !!!

Yep, it’s a child that’s suffered serious abuse, he can mask his actual feelings pretty well and smile while hurting internally

He can pretty much disconnect from his body

it’s a bad consequence of his upbringing my man

Also because he probably feels he would disappoint people by actually appearing hurt or not well when he is

The drawing is good

I love my two good boys

Best duo

The ring is bad enough, normally the whole skin should have been ripped with the ring

Let’s just say nen prevents the ring from moving once you’re inside the game

Also cool to still mention Tsezguerra still can do stuff they can’t

nen is always fun

like with the body, skills and strength work together and you can do a lot with skill alone even if you’re a bit behind in the strength department.

I’m a bit sad to realize a scene I like was added in the 2011 anime. They really did a good addition, highlighting Biscuit’s skill

I liked it

TIMEOUT

Razor likes to spin the ball

Tsez is a cool guy though

I have to agree with Tsez here, it’s not a cop out

Killua, stop trying to fake being fine challenge

Biscuit is a good mom

OUCH

You knew but seeing is quite different than just knowing

Gon looks a bit ashamed here, he knew but he still feels bad about hurting Killua

Here it comes

the famous confession line that’s traditionally used in Japan

I’m tearing up a bit, Gon trusts and loves Killua so much

Killua is honestly moved by it too, I bet he really isn’t confident enough to feel like he can be valued like that

Hisoka looks like his suspicions are being confirmed

For those who don’t know this line from Gon in japanese is a classic line used to confess one’s love, for more info on that go there

https://medium.com/anigay/let-me-begin-by-giving-you-a-puzzle-71aa326293cc

My current vision on the potentiality of Gon and Killua having a romance with each other is that it could go either way, Togashi isn’t dumb and he’s clearly coding some queerness into them as he did with many other characters in several of his works. 

He likes to play with queerness and I wouldn’t find it surprising at all if Gon and Killua’s relationship becomes romantic, for now they are friends and I’m sure Togashi’s freedom with Hunter x Hunter compared to Yu Yu Hakusho or Level E (or even things he wanted to write like Trouble Quartet) is pretty high but there could definitely be some pressure from the editors if he does that

Killua is so gay though

When I was a little gay (13 to 15) and 2011 was coming out, I basically convinced myself I couldn’t be gay because my feelings where just strong friendship like Killua’s feelings for Gon (I related a lot with Killua and identified a lot with his struggles)

this is the kind of conversation that became toxic a lot of times on forums so I’m always wary when I talk about it but some fans are so stubborn they would be capable to deny any prior hints at it if it happens. Some can see it though and agree it would make sense

Anyone saying it wouldn’t make sense, is definitely delusional and not familiar with Togashi’s work

I can definitely see this staying just a friendship too so I don’t care, their relationship makes sense as both and it’s beautifully written.

I love them

ANYWAY let’s catch this fucking ball

Hisoka really is down for all of Gon’s absurd ideas, Killua is a better person to be around him. Not buying into all he says and trying to think things through

Oh yeah emitted nen, back to Razor !!!

This guy is so dangerous he didn��t need all his aura to face Hisoka and Biscuit and put them in life threatening situation. 

Conjurer don’t need to recover their aura from conjured objects so really this is one thing that makes emitted beasts potentially viable in the case of Razor. All conjurers would become weaker when they conjure stuff otherwise and that’d be pretty dumb. Especially since it’d be like having aura removed from your usual pool just to make an item that needs the use of shu to compete with nen abilities

The cost would be double

BUT you used it like a few weeks ago to destroy the troupe’s ship ????

COMBINE

really one of the most wtf moment in Hunter x Hunter

46 - I wouldn’t be down with having a sentient girl kept somewhere to produce gold

47 - oh yeah someone sleeping in your place, pretty cool

48 - Nice smell girl

49 - fuck it a pet mermaid is also fucked up

50 - a little dinosaur, very cool

51 - pet dragon that can talk

52 - weird grasshopper with pearls

53 - king white beetle (we know it)

54 - a butterfly

it was the pet/insects card list

GOTTA CATCH ‘EM ALL

THE END for tonight

#hxh c166 #hxh manga #hxh liveblog

[jazzy-peryton]

I’m gonna be talking about the leaked screenshot for Tyto/the Golden Guard from the Owl House here (mainly discussing the fandom reaction to it). I don’t show the screenshot itself, but please don’t read if you don’t wanna get spoiled!

Apparently people are complain about it, but like. Not for the reasons I’m lowkey disappointed in it.

Since the lower half of his face was always so deliberately covered, I speculated that there may be something more under his mask than a single scar. Like being heavily scarred/inhuman horror mouth/beak/no mouth, etc. etc. etc. The choice to obscure and essentially tease this part of their face led to me beginning to believe there was more to their face, more to the story than meets the eye. Instead, if this isn’t a fake leak and/or some cover up in the show proper, then he looks relatively expected and tame compared to what I was building up in my head. But my expectations are my own, so I’m not like. Mad about that or feel entitled to him looking the way I would like. I just think it could’ve been neat. But ultimately, how he looks is just fine actually, and divorced from my admittedly out-there and wild speculating, I really like the design. Tyto always gave me Hitoshi Shinso from MHA vibes anyway, and this design really checks out with that.

Which leads me to wonder why so many people (mostly teens on TikTok from what I’ve seen) seem upset that he’s isn’t...“hot”? Or as attractive as they wanted him to be? I don’t understand it because Tyto literally look like how I’ve seen so many fanartists draw them when everyone was speculating, and I don’t think anyone had a problem with those? I’ve seen people upset that he has tired eyes, but the first art we ever saw of him, it was the top half of his dark-circled eye-bag face with the caption “I’m tired”? I’ve seen people try to “fix” them by making their nose smaller and not hooked, which actually has all kinds of gross and frankly racist subtext? So, so, so many people were simping for Alador Blight and he has tired eyes and a hooked nose. Are those features only “attractive” when they’re on a “dilf,” not on someone who should be a bishounen apparently?

I genuinely don’t understand it. Not to shame anyone who’s attracted to fictional characters or anything, as I think that’s generally fine, but is their physical appearance so dependent on your liking them as a character that as soon as their face is revealed, and it doesn’t live up to your standards, you write the character off? Aren’t their story and potential as a character the most important part? Character design is really important to me too, and of course I’m most drawn to characters that have an aesthetic I enjoy (scarves, crossbows, bird motifs, and fingerless gloves are high on my list of favorite design traits). But at the end of the day it’s the character that’s important, not how much eye candy potential you think they have.

I don’t know. Again, I’m pretty sure most of the people complaining are kids themselves, so I’m not trying to call anyone or anything out really (except the erasure and calling certain non-traditionally-Eurocentric features “ugly,” which is something I hope they learn is wrong now). I’m not saying that you can’t be disappointed for the image you created not being the same as reality (I did that too). But just recognize that the preconception was yours and the show doesn’t have to line up with your expectations. And know why you had those expectations, and ask why seeing the lower half of someone’s face can completely alter your enjoyment of their character.

#here come some thoughts #spoilers #toh spoilers #the owl house spoilers #the owl house #toh #the golden guard #tyto #luz noceda #character design #i can’t tell if my confusion comes from being older than the target demographic or my general inability to understand attraction #like i really don’t care what character someone thinks is ugly #i just don’t get how you could like a character until they look ‘ugly’ from your standards and now you don’t care about them #i also just find it very Yikes that at least some of it is due to his nose because uhhhhh

[casual-flower]

🍀 and 📚???

🍀 You wish your art was more.. (fill in the blank)

Consistent and neat. All my art looks so different from eachother 😩 My style when I use a pen or pencil is more consistent ig but not with my fingers 😔✌I have some examples of my art a bit further down and the 4 I chose look almost nothing like eachother hnnnggg it bugs me a bunch. I also wish I used more dynamic poses (Ina not drawing a front view headshot when 😳), but for that I can just use references/observation and that would fix it I think lol. I refuse to draw full body digitally idk?? It just never looks good when I do it. I can sorta do it traditionally but other than that I can't lol.

📚 How many layers do you typically use?

A lot. Or at least what I think is a lot lol. I have almost nothing to compare my numbers to cuz idk how many layers other artists use - my best friend uses 1 layer in her art, so in comparison, I use quite a lot lmao. I think how many layers i use heavily depends on the art style I end up with that day, and especially how I choose to colour it. But anyway, this these two drawings used up around 70 layers;

Then theres the ones that have like 30 layers, like these ones;

With my finished artwork (lineart + colour) theres usually at least 15 layers when its all unmerged I think? For e.g. if I want there to be a glitch effect on the lineart I would have to merge all of the lineart layers together (I usually have them in a folder) first. So with one of my artworks it had only 2 layers because I basically merged the whole thing into one lmaooo

This is an example of what one of my lineart layer folders look like (the app is IbisPaintX if anyone is wondering)

Thank you so much for sending this in!! ;u;

Art ask meme

#ask #ask game

[harveylikestoart]

Did some monkey designing! Mostly for Monkie Kid heh heh

I’ll go through the research and designing process as best I can

Journey To The West doesn’t really go into detail about the other two spiritual primates just that they’re close in power to Sun Wukong and The Six Eared Macaque! Anything else I could deduct was probably just from the names!

Keep in mind I bullshitted most of the costuming.

I’ll start with Red Bottom Horse Monkey as that was the first one I designed!

Quick deduction led me to the conclusion that a baboon would be the best pick for the design (mandrills didn’t fit at all because I wanted something closer to China and or around India) so I found Hamadryas Baboons which... was close I guess? There was probably a better option if I researched harder but my brain kept overloading. Also I enjoyed the contrast with the shape of the head compared to Macaque and Wukong.  I really enjoyed the Hamadryas’ fur silhouette so I just applied it for their like cape thingie

With Long Armed Ape Monkey I lost it.

The problem with finding monkeys close to descriptions is when I don’t know what its going to look like. When I saw the GIBBON I lost my god damn mind. The arm to body length ratio made me almost sick because things with super odd anatomy makes me feel ill. Anyways onto designing and research.  So yes I found the gibbons and asked my close friends on their opinions. I gave them the information that traditionally (according to wikipedia) gibbons are seen to be gentlemanly ig. Whether it is true or not my friends chose two options, the Northern White-Crested Gibbon and the Western Hoolock Gibbon (because of the fancy eyebrows) and the latter won when designed because the hair is flattened down compared to Macaque and Wukong. I could not stand drawing the actual arms so I gave ‘em long sleeves and they would most likely stretch and hit stuff like Ring Ring’s thing from Pucca!

Also gave them a cape!

so yeah thats my design and research process ig! If anything is offensive PLEASE DO TELL ME

#journey to the west #red bottom horse monkey #long armed ape monkey #character designing #jttw #lego monkie kid #monkie kid #avi’s arts and stuff

[twiststreet]

Something kind of interesting from your Comics Internet:  Javier Pulido’s been doing a Ninjak comic with Jeff Parker for Valiant (whoever they are currently-- it’s Fall, the time of year traditionally when leaves change color and ownership of Rai & The Future Force and the other all-star Valiant characters changes hands-- the last I heard I want to say some Chinese company was involved??  But who knows).  It at least caught the eye because Pulido looked like he was pushing his style to an extreme there in terms of using line, silhouette, flat colors-- that Mazzuchelli quote about Paul Karasik: “Paul thinks of comics in much more graphic terms - drawing as symbol, cipher, icon,... cartoon!”  

More storytelling, less friction from the illustration, more focus on aesthetic.  Those books looked like he was really trying to achieve a purity of aesthetic.  But in a segment of the comics market that I think really doesn’t have much interest in aesthetics, at least as compared to, like, a sort of physicality of drawing, I guess?  The “Look at this Effort!  All the lines = effort” wing of comics.  You know: Kirby had an aesthetic, Ditko had an aesthetic, but by the late Bronze Age, I think Marvel’s house style was way more Romita and Buscema, neither of whom had any aesthetic at all-- illustrators.  (Illustration won; Aesthetics lost, to put it as reductively as possible, a I like to do with everything I’ve ever written, ever, ever).  

Though Pulido’s goals seemed a little second-hand-- you know, some pop art, there’s some 60′s design/style ideas in there, Yellow Submarine, obviously Guy Pelleart but super-de-eroticized.  It’s nice, but you can really see the fingerprints of what he’s looking at... (I think Kevin Dart’s cartoons are more interesting for that “spy girl” genre, but I mean, I’d rather read Pulido as a comic-- I don’t know that’s a whole subject).  Or it feels... intermediary-- it looks like a comic where he’s taking a step towards someplace he hasn’t quite fully gotten to yet.

But I mean, it’s all being used for a Ninjak comic so who gives a shit?  Nothing I’m looking at here suggests that Parker’s pushing equally (which I would guess keeps Pulido too earth-bound).  And without a real coherence between writer and artist, it just seems likely to become a “remember when” comic.  You know, one of those books where people at a con bar, saying “Remember when they did that"-- Mike Mignola’s issue of X-Force, or whatever.  Fun stuff, but fun for craphounds (aka me).  Curious.  Inessential.    

But the thing that makes it interesting this morning is apparently Valiant wasn’t on board with what he was doing??? Or something happened, anyways.   So after 3 previous issues of this style, this time, they swerve in the fourth issue (whuh?) to a different artist working in a trad comics style... but after Pulido drew the issue!  So you can see two artists working the same script... one trying to do something (sometimes effectively), the other probably working closer “to market” (a conservative market). Kind of interesting if you like seeing storytelling choices and how they feel on a page and so forth-- real feel it in your teeth stuff.  (Of course, there’s the added thing of ... what happened behind the scenes on this one?  But a million things could’ve happened-- none of my business, I guess).  

Pulido put his pages on a very cool “comic storytelling” blog if you want to do the compare/contrast (the blog is 10,000% my kind of shit, as you might guess-- a lot of Pulido Madden-ing his choices with a red pen).  The changeover seems to have surprised Pulido as at the time of Ninjak #3′s release, he anticipated the fourth installment of his blog differently:  “I'll talk about covers.”  Anyways: something to look at if you’re into the comics...

#Worst Hobby or Worstest Hobby?

[handlewithkara]

Versus a depowered “human” Kara ending

I know that people have put forth the theory for why they think that the show will end with Kara giving up her powers and becoming “human”. I thought I would lay out my reasons why I don’t think it will happen. For this I will use a mixture of spoilers, discussion of themes and yes of course you can’t avoid personal preferences. 

First let me say, I don’t blame people for this speculation and that it makes the stupid or bad fans. I can see why looking at the evidence could make them come to that conclusion (for example with quotes like “Melissa:  What she stands for and always fighting for what's right, and leading with your heart and compassion and finding your family and holding on for dear life. “ or “ it's a lot of exploration of power and what it means, how do you wield it well, how do you wield it for the wrongs reasons, and what happens when you do on both sides of heroes and villains. “ or “The more Kara matures, the more she's grappled with her power and what it means to carry the powers that she has on Earth and her identity as either an alien or human, or where she belongs. Those are things we're really exploring this year with her. And what makes you strong? What makes you feel empowered? Those are things we're looking at this season across the board for all the characters. But with Kara specifically, this season is going to be more of a self-exploration, looking in the mirror and [contemplating] what her power means because it's almost limitless and it makes her so strong on Earth. Where does she draw the line? How does she reconcile that with her humanity?”), I’m just going to share why I don’t think it will be the ending the show goes with. 

Things we know about the ending - quotes: 

Quotes from Melissa:

-  they pitched me the end, and it's really lovely. It's a great ending. I feel fantastic about it  

-  "Story-wise, it's really lovely the capacity in which [James, Winn and Mon-El] return."

-  She said she would be willing to put on the Supergirl costume one more time to convince [her son]."If he asks, I would do it," Benoist said. "Something tells me he probably won't. [He] might be embarrassed." 

-  Of course, I’m not going to give anything away, but I am very happy with the strength and the empowerment that comes with the way we’re ending the series for Kara.

- it’s our heartfelt wish that her legacy echoes the central message of Supergirl: embrace the hope, the inspiration and the supwerpowers that live within yourself

Quotes from Chyler: 

- Question: Are you content with where Alex’s story ends? Chyler: It’s bittersweet. [..]  It’s going to be a “to be continued” kind of thing. It’s understanding that, OK, they’ve reached a certain point in their life where it’s almost like the audience can hopefully give them permission to imagine them having some time to be happy and it not be dire straits all the time. There’s always going to be bad guys.

Things we know about the ending from behind the scenes pictures: 

- Alex and Kelly will have a wedding and very likely Alex will finally get to adopt a kid like she has always wanted. 

- James, Mon-El and Winn are back for the finale and take part in the big battle. Kara is still flying in that battle. 

- A part of the battle is the people of National City rising up and helping out. 

- There is a scene where Andrea and Lena create something dedicated to William Dey. There is a scene of Nia posing with a flag and Kelly is present. 

- Alex will appear in the Flash crossover which is set after Supergirl concludes, potentially together with Kelly. Kara/Melissa won’t take part. As per her quote Melissa very likely doesn’t plan on playing Supergirl any time soon. 

The feminist message of Kara giving up her special powers

To me, there has always been a feminist message in women having powers and getting to use them. If you compare it to how how the journeys of Kara’s male colleagues have gone, traditionally they have gotten only more powerful over time, such as with Oliver dying and returning as an almost all powerful being. 

To me the message of taking the most powerful character in the Arrowverse who happens to be female and telling her “you have to give up your powers for the greater good” seems just kind of wonky to me. Not that it couldn’t be done at all, but I find it at least somewhat questionable rather than “I heard it and I got it immediately”. (is it really a great example of strenght and empowerment for Kara to give up her special powers? Is it really a lovely occasion for Mon-El, Winn and James to return to watch Kara give up her powers? As opposed to the occasion being that all of Kara’s friends, all the people she inspired to be heroes, powers or no powers get together to help her defeat the baddies) 

Especially since in the context of the show, these powers are an inherent part of Kara, just like they are for Nia and J’onn. And the show has consistently shown as the powers also being something that give Kara great joy (particularly flying). 

Diversity versus hegemony

Supergirl has always used aliens as a metaphor for immigrants and bringing up various aspects like suspicion against aliens, their rights as full citizens etc. 

It seems to me that for the way the show has used this metaphor the more suitable message would be aliens and humans living in harmony with each other and the aliens can keep having their powers. To resolve this conflict by Kara just “becoming human” seems like an odd fit for me compared how the show has handled this topic so far. 

Especially considering how Melissa has recently frequently brought up season 4 and citing that she liked it precisely for the political storylines it had. That being the very same reason where Kara contemplates embracing her heritage in public. 

There has been a lot of moaning about the potential implications of “giving up your life for a dude”, but I would bring forth, isn’t “giving up your heritage, giving up an integral part of yourself for anybody” still a pretty wonky message (presuming that the end would be something like “Kara gives up her powers for Alex, so she can be human with Alex, since the sisters are the heart of the show” [as it does not appear that Kara gave her powers up to defeat the big bad, since she still seems to have her powers in the big battle, so it would have to be what... Kara asking Nyxly or Myxy to take away her powers?], it just seems to me that in such a scenario, wouldn’t the greater love be where the other person doesn’t need or want you to give up such a huge part of yourself and instead loves you the way you are?

To me it just seems like the more uplifting message would be if aliens can keep their powers and still be accepted for who they are. 

Powers are used to bring down the big bad

Having a badguy with the power to do everything at the snap of a finger would be an excellent setup for Kara to lose her powers. But if the message of the show is supposed to be that no-powers is as good or even better than having powers, wouldn’t you expect that be reflected in how the big bad is handled? If the end of Kara’s story was that she gives up on having superpowers and focuses on being just a journalist, wouldn’t you expect then that journalism is what brings down the badguys? Wouldn’t you expect a big battle where Kara does not have powers but beats the badguys anyway to show off that powers are not needed at all even when facing down the biggest bads? 

Instead it looks to me like Kara still very much has her powers in this confrontation (we see her doing a superhero landing) And she is still wearing her superhero suit. Again if the central message of the show was wouldn’t it be more powerful if the big final battle would feature Kara facing the badguys down in her human, reporter outfit? 

Kara wouldn’t leave her friends

I find this claim strangest of all. Because Kara has left her friends before. She left to live on Argo. And if you look at those episodes, she did not come back because she missed her friends so much and realized she could not live without them. She realized she did not like it there, that she didn’t fit in there because even in a mostly peaceful world where Kara has no special powers compared to everybody else Kara could just not stop superheroing and she returned because earth was in danger. 

Back in season 3 when Kara tried to leave, all the people in her life were arguably in a way worse condition than they presumably be at the end of season 6. In season 3 Alex was still alone and still saddened by her breakup, just on the verge of taking steps towards her goal of motherhood. At the end of season 6 she will presumably be married to an equally heroic partner with the adoption she has been craving going through. 

In season 3 Lena was still clueless about the inner workings of superheroics, by the end of season 6, Lena is in the know, part of the team and has forged a lot of new friendships and might presumably even get more active powers of her own and it stands to reason by the end of season 6 Lena will be truly free of her family influence. Nia has grown into her own powers. Compared to the last time Kara left, everybody is in an even better shape.  

Would Kara really stop being a physical hero if she lost her powers? 

One component of the speculation is that whatever the ending is, it must provide an explanation for why Kara isn’t taking part in crossovers. Yet... Alex has no superpowers and she is still a hero. And every time Kara lost her powers in canon, she still kept on being a hero. So even if Kara gave her powers up permanently why wouldn’t she just join Kelly and Alex in being a technology based hero? 

I find it much harder to believe that a Kara who stays would sit by idly while Kelly and Alex put themselves into phyiscal danger. To me, a setup where Kara is still a superhero, just physically elsewhere and trusting Alex to hold down the fort just works a lot better than Kara not joining physically when she is basically around the corner and the show has plenty of technology lying around that would allow her to stay a physically active hero. 

It just seems odd to me that she couldn’t do both yet at the same time Alex presumably stays active as a hero. So is staying a vigilante superhero something worthwhile (even as you can have a positive influence on the world as a social worker or a reporter) or is it not?  If it’s not worthwhile, why is Alex still doing it and if it’s worthwhile and Kara’s beloved sister is doing it, why would Kara stop doing it, when in the past, she has always shown herself to still act heroically even when she had no powers? 

Is being human is better than having powers, shouldn’t J’onn and NIa (or Mon-El for that matter) give up their powers too? 

If the core message of Supergirl is supposed to be that not having superhuman powers and just acting with human empathy and ingenuity is better, why don’t J’onn and Nia give up their powers? if let’s say sacrificing powers was a requirement to defeat the big bad, wouldn’t that also affect J’onn and Nia? 

Yet when Nicole Maines was interviewed and asked how she would like Nia’s story to continue after Supergirl she talked explicitly about wanting to develop Nia’s powers more and how she wants Nia to become even more powerful. Something that seems kind of at odds if she just comes off a show where the presumably celebrated end is the main character losing her powers. 

If Kara has lot her power, why isn’t she present right there in the front line in those scenes with Andrea, Lena and Nia? 

If the aim of the show is for Kara to become “human” and focus on her work as a reporter and the various way that humans can inspire each other and lift each other, wouldn’t you expect Kara to be part of it? To either cover it as a reporter or to even be part directly when for example sort of inspiring organization is being created? 

Kara not being in those scenes to me makes more sense if she either isn’t there and these scenes communicate how various other characters carry on her mission OR if she at the very least still has her powers and flying over them in a way that is added as CGI later. 

Anyway, these are the reasons why I personally find it rather doubtful that the show will go with a depowered or “human” Kara ending. 

I personally lean towards what I call a “Graduation” ending, an ending where Kara looks down with pride on all heroes she helped inspire and moves to some other location to be a hero there or hone her heroing there, feeling safe in the knowledge that she is leaving the protection of earth in capable hands and that her message is still being carried forth by the people she has inspired. 

Another option of course could be that she just stays as a superhero as before, and they just don’t care to have any particular explanation for why she isn’t taking part in crossovers. 

Maybe the strength and empowerement could come from full circle from the pilot in her standing tall as a powerful hero with a army of people she inspired behind her and finally being open about her secret identity, as an alien (as mirror to Kara revealing her powers to the world in the pilot, it is Kara revealing her identity to the world). 

In the end, it be will a question of personal preference and we’ll probably have to agree to disagree which ending seems more likely and just a couple of months from now, we will see what the show goes with, what they felt was more suitable and what Melissa thought made a “lovely” ending for Kara’s character. if Kara “turn human” in the end and Melissa is happy with it, whatever. I can live with it. But with the things are now, I’m skeptical that that would be their ending. To me it would just seem like an odd fit with the overall messaging of the show (yes even with all the talk about human hearts, but what does it say about the rest of the characters who are also aliens?) and a rather dubious place to leave the character in and imo doesn’t really provide a lot of advantages to Kara keeping her powers and staying in town when it comes to explaining her position vis a vis the rest of the Arrowverse. 

#supergirl #supergirl spoilers #supergirl season 6

[transcendentcacophony]

Thoughts on Worldbuilding: Storytelling with Geography: Lunar Lakes

So I've been thinking about worldbuilding for awhile, and one of the things that I like about certain worlds is that they tell a story with their geography. I think Lunar Lakes is one of these worlds.

Image: An overview of Lunar Lakes from Sims 3

All Lunar Lake images will be from here

This is going to draw from James C. Scott's The Art of Not Being Governed and the concept of Zomia

So one of the central concepts behind Zomia and The Art is the idea that not everybody wants to be a part of centralized governments or nation-states.

Traditionally, most academic fields have held that as societies centralize around agricultural centers that evolve into urban centers, they draw everybody to them through some kind of unexplained magnetism as they gradually expand. It's usually held that this is because the centralizing power of agriculture allows for population booms not supported by hunting-and-gathering. At least one philosopher <cough> Daniel Quinn <cough>1 this is a result of these populations controlling access to food. Not just surpluses of food, but access to food at all, forcing those within their borders to join the system or die.

This idea that agricultural societies are somehow fundamentally better. We see this reflected in different cultural evolution models (all of which are horribly racist but still manage to hang on in weird places, particularly developmental models). As such, the shift from hunting-and-gathering to sedentary agriculture tends to be heralded as a good thing in most history text books and is pretty much always seen as a step towards "modernization.2" But what if you don't want that? What if you have zero interest in joining the agricultural community and implied state control?3 What options do you have then?

You, then, may be interested in Zomia or one of the other extra-territorial spaces that function similarly.

Image: A village in the mountains

So what is Zomia? Zomia encompasses a large territory that ranges across Southeast Asia up into Tibet. Its primary defining feature is its rugged terrain and various populations that have no interest in different state-sponsored "civilizing" projects. While different agricultural centers expand outward to fill the lowland regions seeking to bully those they encounter along the way into joining, various people along the way say "f*ck it" and go up into the mountains. Why? Because the rugged terrain makes it harder for their valley-based neighbors to control them while providing plenty of hiding places push back against their expansion.

Image: A map of the Zomia area highlighting the Southeast Asian and Himalayan Massifs, areas encompassing the geography of Zomia itself.

Agriculture tends to lock people into place and makes them easier to control, therefore nation-states interested in keeping track of large populations have a vested interest in convincing people to farm. Buggering off into the mountains offsets this. Agriculture isn't necessarily harder in these mountainous areas4, but you do have different crops as a result of altitudinal zonation and a fair amount of people choose to engage in animal husbandry instead because the high altitudes impact calorie consumption as your body spends more energy keeping you warm.

This impacts cultures in these regions as well. People may choose to define themselves in opposition to the lowland culture they are avoiding. They may hybridize with cultures already in the mountains, create new languages, or define themselves by the fact they are there for political or semi-political reasons and expressly avoiding the control of an outside party, even if that outside party is the nation-state they are legally considered a part of. There is also a tendency of these cultures to discard literacy for orality, in part because orality is easier to carry around and in part because it marks them as Other compared to their lowland counterparts. It also gives you a since of control over your culture itself, as orality can't be shared unless you want it to whereas almost anyone can learn a writing system and open a book.

So what's this got to do with Lunar Lakes? Let's look at LL more closely, shall we?

Image: The downtown region from Lunar Lakes

The most densely developed part of Lunar Lakes is easily this "downtown" district in the lowlands region. This area contains most of the community lots for the world, and, most tellingly, City Hall and the Perigee, which we're told in the original blurb brought the (human) sims to Lunar Lakes to begin with.

Image: The Rim

There is a little bleed over of rabbitholes from the city center onto the Rim, a slightly elevated area just above it, but these are no where near as "mountainous" as the craters we'll get to in a minute.

Image: The Canals

Another defining feature of the lowland central area are these canals. As these canals do not extend to a beach or other waterway, they can't be for trade, thereby lending themselves to the idea that they are intended for agricultural uses. They could, of course, predate the colony, but that doesn't change the intent.

Image: The Crystal Mine, the Outpost, and the Depot

On the backside of the craters, we have the Crystal Mine, the Outpost, and the Depot. We're told in the original backstory blurb for the world on the Store page that the residents had to harness the crystals to to make their colony sustainable, but it feels abandoned now. Given the importance of the mine in the early days of the colony, it makes sense they'd have a transport depot here for the workers and an outpost, possibly for the military, to protect it, especially if the world was inhabited and the indigenous people wanted nothing to do with them or actively apposed them.

Image: The Craters from Lunar Lakes

Which brings us finally to the craters themselves. Here's where Zomia comes in. If Lunar Lakes was inhabited and if the native population had no interest in joining the colonists or being exploited by them, where would they go? The craters, of course! This would also hold true for anyone who didn't want to fall in line with the colonial leadership among the human sims themselves. We know the Louie family, for example, had to move to the craters after they were exiled by Patricia Cross, the current colonial leader. It therefore stands to reason that, even if the people who live here are colonists, this is where they are expected to go if they are exiled or want to get away from the political milieu of the central powers in the downtown district.

Image: Suburban Subspace lot from Lunar Lakes

And, of course, architecturally, this is where we got those distinctive mushroom houses, which again, suggests an alternative development of this region compared to the lowlands even if the people here are exiled colonists, deviants, etc.

Regardless, we end up with a setting that is rife for internal worldbuilding and storytelling based on its geography. If you add an alien population seeking to escape SimEarth colonization by fleeing to the craters, it establishes a political backdrop for stories, making the world feel more lived in and providing a ready-made backstory. This is one of the things I think is drastically missing in the Sims 4 with their itty-bitty neighborhoods and lack of connecting spaces.

Anyways, these are the things I think about when worldbuilding myself. What story does my world tell geographically? Does it have a built in backstory represented by its geography? Are the different regions/neighborhoods connected in a way that makes cohesive sense? Are their other worlds you think do a good job of storytelling with their designs?

If you build worlds, do you take into account the storytelling potential of your geography? Why or why not? If you play in worlds like Lunar Lakes, does the geography inform your storytelling? Does it help build a metadiscourse around your game? Are there other worlds that inspire your gameplay with their layouts?

Edited in response to @nornities excellent feedback.

1) This is not meant as an endorsement of all of Quinn's arguments; he's got a weird overpopulation theory built into his writing that's a little too close to Malthusian for my liking, but I'm not one to throw out the baby with the bathwater, as it were.

2) Ever notice how "modernization" and "development" are always fundamentally anchored in how Europe moved from feudalism to imperialism to democracy etc.? Yeah, that's the remnants of that "cultural evolution" model I'm talking about. "You're not successful until you look like us!" "Take these developmental loans from the World Bank or the IMF! We promise the strings attached are for your benefit too!" "What do you mean you want to skip industrialization and natural resource extraction and invest in your environment, happiness, and long-term sustainability? You'll never be like us that way! You're a failed state! Ignore the coup in the background we swear we had nothing to do with!"

3) This is the section that was edited after @nornities pointed out that it could be read to imply that non-agricultural societies don't have taxes, class warfare, epidemics, subjugation, slavery, conscription, etc. That was not the intention, although it is clearly stated in Scott's original work that he considers these and other negative societal effects to be the direct result of such "civilizing projects." It was not my intent to perpetuate that idea as these things do happen in non-agricultural societies, so I have changed the original wording. Thank you, @nornities

4) I also forgot to mention the clear exception to this: the Incan Empire. Unlike most empire models, the Inca engaged in a top-down society (literally) that was based in the mountains and expanded downward and outward over time. They were predated by two earlier Andean civilizations.