larkspur777

[larkspur777]

(I'm new to digital art and this is my first attempt at drawing Sonic characters. I kind of lost the willpower to work on this but here's as far as I got.)

Maddie's love of yoga is rubbing off on everyone. Knuckles is doing "Warrior 3" and Shadow is doing "The Scorpion."

[larkspur777]

[larkspur777]

Aspec Sonic week compilation for Arospec Awareness Week (in the order I made them)

Once again, thanks so much for creating this fandom event! Ive been STARRVINNG for aroace sonic content @mageofcolors

Buy most of these on Redbubble! Emergency Commissions open! Don't ignore my DNI! Reblogs are better than likes!

[larkspur777]

I could see Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles liking Rise of the TMNT, while Shadow I think would prefer Wednesday (Netflix).

Some things I noticed in this new image from Knuckles...

Addams Family poster in Wade's old room!

Also, TMNT bedsheets and pillow case!

[larkspur777]

Ofc they have a show together wym

(Pls it'd be so cool)

[larkspur777]

I've thought for a while that Johnny's storyline in Sing could be seen as a queer metaphor. Similar to other movies like Madagascar 2, where the dad disapproves of his son's creative interests and wants him to "toughen up." However, I didn't realize until yesterday that the song Johnny sings at the talent show is by Elton John, who's gay. Surely that can't just be a coincidence? Was Johnny's name even inspired by Elton John's?

[larkspur777]

I imagine this could also be Chrissy and Eddie from Stranger Things or Sky and Viktor from Arcane.

[larkspur777]

I've thought for a while that Johnny's storyline in Sing could be seen as a queer metaphor. Similar to other movies like Madagascar 2, where the dad disapproves of his son's creative interests and wants him to "toughen up." However, I didn't realize until yesterday that the song Johnny sings at the talent show is by Elton John, who's gay. Surely that can't just be a coincidence? Was Johnny's name even inspired by Elton John's?

[larkspur777]

*sighs and adds knuxadow to ship list*

[larkspur777]

I have to stop becoming a rare pair shipper this is ridiculous where is the content

[larkspur777]

Steve wins the bat plush at a fair when he's seven. He doesn't care about bats, but it's the prize for making all five baskets in the basketball game, so he gets the little bat. Its eyes are a little crooked and one wing is slightly smaller than the other, but it being lopsided sort of makes it cuter.

He and his dad, they're supposed to be going on rides now, but his dad's pager keeps going off. He puts Steve next to a funnel cake stand, tells him not to move, and goes in search of a pay phone. Fifteen minutes pass, and Steve is bored under the flashing lights and tinkling music. He wants to play not sit and wait.

Eventually, he drifts back towards the midway, watches the people rushing by, searches for a sign of his dad's return. His attention is caught by another boy at the basketball booth. He has to be about Steve's age, with a mop of dark curls on top of his head and a jean jacket that's slightly too big, sleeves flopping over his hands as he lines up his shots.

This boy, he's terrible at basketball. Every shot is too high or too short or goes wide, but he's trying. Even from this distance, Steve can see how hard he's trying. He uses up his five balls, fishes into his jacket pocket for more money, and gets five more.

He misses every shot. This time, when he goes back for more money, he comes up empty. Steve thinks he sees his lip shaking.

A man, one in a leather jacket and boots that Steve thinks look mean, comes up to the boy, drops a heavy hand on his shoulder. He's too far away to hear the conversation, assumes the boy asks to play again and the man's response is a shaken head and a tight smile. They walk away from the games, right towards Steve, who slinks back to the side of the midway, not wanting to be caught staring.

"What was it you wanted? That stupid bat? Just another piece of trash you wanna bring in my house." Steve hears as they pass.

The boy nods, but keeps his eyes down and to the side.

He feels bad then. Felt bad before, but now he looks at his own bat, at its funny eyes and poorly attached wings, and wishes he could hand it over to the boy who really wants it. Steve almost does, then, makes to go after them, but his dad appears, dropping a hand to Steve's shoulder and saying, "ready to hit those rides?" And he knows the opportunity is gone, knows his dad will say it's too soft, not what men do.

Steve manages to lose himself for a while in the swirling lights and funhouse music and carnival rides, forget about the little bat in his back pocket and the boy who wanted one so desperately. But then his dad's pager goes off some more, he goes back to the pay phone, and Steve ducks into the low brick building that houses the bathrooms.

His eyes immediately land on the same boy from the basketball game. His eyes are red, face damp, obviously from tears, and Steve just--

"Here." He shoves the bat into the boy's chest.

For a second, the brownest eyes Steve's ever seen widen at him, before narrowing in a harsh glare, the boy's teeth barred.

"Why?" He snarls.

Steve thinks he may regret every choice that led him to this but he says, he says, "Because I want you to have it."

The boy blinks a few times, hand reaching out to gently pinch the bat's smallest wing. "You sure?"

Steve nods and the bat is slowly withdrawn from his grasp.

"No takesies-backsies?"

"It's yours."

The boy looks at the bat in awe, and Steve says, "see? It already looks happier with you."

The boy's beaming smile is cut-off by a voice calling from the door, "you in there,? I ain't got time to be waiting for your boohooing."

"Coming!" The boy carefully tucks the bat into an inner pocket of his jacket. "Thank you," he whispers, eyes big and glistening and happy, before he disappears out the door.

---

13 years later, give or take a few months, and Steve stands in the cracked shell of a bisected trailer, rummaging through what remains of a life well-lived, searching for anything whole. He's already found a few undamaged mugs and clean hats, but this room--it took a lot of damage. The brunt of it, really. Some sick sort of joke, after everything.

It's mostly rubble in here, scraps of fabric; slivers of notebook paper, magazine, poster; crumbled shards of vinyl and cassette plastic. A few times he comes across the disembodied limb of one of those dnd figures, and something weird happens to his throat.

In the far corner there's half of a dresser collapsed into itself, and he shuffles through the debris to see what he can find. There's something, soft and black, just the edge of it, peaking out from under half of a drawer face. He pulls it out, careful as can be and it's--it's a plush bat. It's a little dirty, but unharmed, though its eyes are a little wonky, and one wing is smaller than the other.

He holds it and he stares and he has to brace himself against the wall. It can't be--it's not the same one--but he remembers those big brown eyes and the curls and--

"Harrington," a warm, rich voice calls from what's left of the hallway. "You get lost in there?"

Eddie shuffles in, slow, careful with his crutches. And it--it took so long, months and months of convalesce and physical therapy, still physical therapy, but he's here. He's alive. He's perfect. And the something blooming between them, it's not spoken yet, but it's there, growing, and now, now--

"Oh my god, you found Lilith! I thought she was toast."

"Lilith?" He's still cradling the little lopsided bat in his hands, but moves closer to hand it over to Eddie.

"Yes, Lilith." Eddie takes the bat, presses it to his chest. "The first boy I ever loved gave her to me."

His heart turns over in his chest and when he swallows his throat clicks. Eddie doesn't notice, he's smiling softly at the bat, at Lilith, but then, "why are you looking at me like that?"

"First boy you ever loved?" He says. He thinks he sounds normal.

Somehow, Eddie's smile grows even softer. "Yeah. Roan County Fair, years ago. Tried to win her, but--" he clicks his tongue--"never had great hand-eye coordination. And then this kid just gave her to me out of nowhere. I used to think I was going to marry him."

"And now?"

Eddie laughs. "I grew up, Steve."

And for a second, he doesn't know what to say, but then, "I was right then, huh? That she'd be happier with you."

He stares at Steve, those same big brown eyes, wide and glistening. "Steve that was--Steve?" Eddie presses a hand over his mouth, overcome, before launching himself into Steve's arms. The crutches clatter to the floor, but Steve has him, will always have him, no matter what.

"I can't believe you kept her," Steve whispers.

"God, I carry her everywhere. She's Corroded Coffin's mascot, and you--Steve, I can't believe that was you."

"Surprise," he bumps Eddie's forehead with his.

They hold each other in the center of the destruction, but none of that matters right now, not when it feels like every moment since they very first met as children was leading them to this.

From the other half of the trailer, they hear footsteps, chattering, Wayne and Robin and Dustin, but Steve wants this to last a little longer.

"So, marriage...that still off the table?"

Eddie laughs softly, nuzzles his face against Steve's neck. "Are you kidding, sweetheart? No way I'm letting you go."

[larkspur777]

I've got the same small little ember but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. That's such a good point though about them treating the other minority rep with care. And that's interesting about the director loving the San Francisco version!

I'm not calling out this specific person, but I have seen this take a lot since the girls have started doing press- i mean I've seen it since they were cast but it has been worse lately.

I don't care about who people ship but I think it is WEIRD that people will ship any two white men who stand next to each other and yet when one of those people is black? "They don't look cute together"? I think this one is kind of on people to examine why they don't think these two beautiful woman would want to kiss 🤷‍♀️

[larkspur777]

This video aligns pretty well I'd say!

Sonic the Hedgehog zodiacs

Dr. Robotnik - Aquarius - Aquarians have a reputation as the "mad scientists."

Knuckles - Aries - A warrior with the flames of disaster!

Sonic - Leo - He's not a fan of water, I think he'd be a fire sign. He reminds me of Leo from Rise of the TMNT.

Tails - Libra - He can fly so I think he'd be an air sign. I'm leaning towards Libra.

Shadow - Scorpio - Serious and mysterious.

[larkspur777]

Is anyone else a bit worried for the fourth Sonic movie? I saw this news and I'm a little concerned . . . and based on the comments, I'm not the the only one.

[larkspur777]

I totally agree that Leo being aroace would've made more sense. However, I personally don't think Calypso should be paired with any of the teenagers. Maybe Reyna could've ended up with Piper? Instead of giving Piper a random girlfriend that we'd never heard of before, it would've been nice if Piper's girlfriend was an already-established character. It's been so long since I read the books that I honestly remember next to nothing, but after skimming the wiki, I could see a relationship between Reyna and Piper working, based on what's written there.

Okay, I've seen the whole "Reyna and Calypso should have switched endings with Reyna finding a partner after years of searching while Calypzo realizes she doesn't need a man a gets to run off with the Hunters of Artemis to explore the world after being stuck in one place for so long", but I would like to sumbit for consideration: Reyna should have switched endings with Leo.

Think about it. Reyna spends most of HOO wallowing over what Aphrodite told her and trying to get a boyfriend. And Leo spent the entire series feeling like the ultimate 3rd wheel. Moreover, Calypso spent thousands of years waiting for a MAN to rescue her.

I think it would have been interesting to see Reyna land on Calypso's island because it would be the first time in RR's writing we see/hear about a woman landing on Ogygia. It would have been intersting to see how Calypso and Reyna realize they do not need men to save them from their "fate". Additionally, the parallel between the two being each other's loophole to the god's ordainments. Reyna was told that a demi-god would never heal her heart right? Calypso isn't a demi-god, she also wasn't what Reyna was looking for. She was looking for a boyfriend at the beginning of the series. How satisfying would it be to watch her realize she is not straight and find a girlfriend by the end of the series?

Additionally, Calypso's punishment was that men would come to her island, stay until she fell in love with them, and then leave her in exile. A woman coming to her island would be new (at least in Riordan's lore, from my recollection). A woman rescueing her from her island would be a far more interesting sub-version of expectations.

As for Leo, his story arc was about overcoming the feeling of always being the outsider, even amoung a group of outsiders. He always felt like he didn't belong. He felt awkward on a ship full of couples (especially since every single couple was man/woman)? Coming to terms with his asexuality by the end of the series and feeling more comfortable in his platonic relationships would actually be a satisfyibg resolution to his character arc. Especially cause we've seen him flirt with almost every woman throught the whole series in an effort to fit in. Moreover, he has stated himself that he is more comfortable with machines than he is with humans. I have a soft spot for Jason/Leo, but honestly... Leo always struck me as extremely ace/aro coded.

Not a single one of these three had a satisfying conclusion to their character arcs, and a lot of that could havebeen resolved by eliminating the forced heteronormative narrative.

[larkspur777]

One thing I like about Top Gun (1986) is how believable the development with Ice and Mav's dynamic is.

I've seen a lot of the "Rivals suddenly become buddies after traumatic event together" in media, but I don't think I've seen it done better than in Top Gun. Mostly, I attribute it to how much build up it has.

Most of the time, the 'Rivals' hate each others guts throughout the entire movie/series and then they go through an extremely traumatic event that binds them for life and shifts their entire concept of each other. Ice and Mav never once changed how they saw each other, it just changed their understanding of it.

Ice saw Maverick as dangerous and Mav saw Iceman as stuck-up and commanding. And they weren't wrong, by any means.

From the beginning, they have tension between them because of how different they are. And it ends up in the audience seeing Ice as the 'Antagonist' because that's how Mav sees it, and we're seeing it from his perspective as the protagonist. But Ice was never inherently wrong, in fact he was right.

Other than his first scene, Iceman always has a point in what he's saying. He's criticizing Mav, not insulting him. Sure, he does it in a brash way because masculinity, but he's not trying to insult him, he's trying to knock him down a peg and wake him up to reality. All Ice wants is that he starts to act as a team player, start caring about everybody's safety AND his own, rather than being reckless for the sake of being reckless. But Mav sees it as an insult because he can't process criticism in a healthy way (due to how he grew up). The same thing happened with Charlie, for the record.

And so the strife between the two begins. What I like about it is how it bleeds out of them over time, becoming more settled as the movie goes on. In the locker room "You're dangerous" scene, the tension is palpable. It's obvious they're agitated by each other, and feel the need to prove they're the correct one.

If you pay attention, this whole... demand for superiority goes away as time progresses. They're fine with each other's presence, it's not like they're constantly at each others throat all the time. In the shower scene, Ice dropped all of the aggression and competitiveness from his tone and is instead just laying out what he thinks. He's not undermining Maverick, he's not lecturing him like a child. Iceman is just telling Maverick exactly how he sees the situation in hopes that it would make him realize what the fuck he's doing, but with little hope that it'll actually work.

That doesn't mean Ice is always correct either, he doesn't understand why Mav acts the way he does, thus fails to take into consideration the emotional trauma behind it. Which only causes even more strife.

The entire time, Iceman isn't being a dick for the sake of it, he just wants Mav to stop being stupid (by his standards). And Maverick doesn't understand it because all he gets from what Ice says is insults.

Maverick isn't good at understanding what people mean to say if it's implied, you need to say it to his face. This is the reason he stayed quiet in the shower scene, because Ice finally laid everything out in simple words that he can understand without making it sound like a dick-measuring contest.

Thing is, the tension mellows out. At the beginning, you could see the tension and cut it with a knife. By the middle you can see them getting used to each other without jumping to constantly trade jabs (namely: the volleyball scene, it's just a bunch of guys being dudes, and the scene where Charlie says that Mav flew recklessly in front of the whole class, Ice doesn't comment on it in any way). Over time, they've settled down into their tension without needing to address it all the time.

Then Goose dies.

And the tension between them is still there.

Just because Goose isn't there anymore, doesn't mean their whole dynamic vanishes all of a sudden. You can see their hesitation towards each other (especially Ice), and that's great! It demonstrates that Goose dying doesn't magically resolve their problems with each other in solidarity.

Ice tried to give his consolations to Mav, and is awfully awkward about it. You can see on his face that he wants to say more, but doesn't because he knows it's not his place given their history. And not much is said, but a lot it communicated. (Val Kilmer is a killer actor for this, OH MY FUCKING GOD BLESS THAT MAN)

Even in the graduation scene you can see how out of their depts they really are with each other. A stilted congratulations, that was it. But they're trying, and that's what matters.

A scene I think gets overlooked a lot is the scene right before the Layton, where Ice expressed his worries about Mav to Stinger, and Mav heard him. Because I feel like that was a shift that was more drastic than the Layton itself for them.

What Ice was doing in that scene wasn't doubting Maverick's flying abilities, it was his mental health. Sure, he passed the psych eval, but that means next to jack shit when in a real combat situation so close after his backseater dying. And Ice might be worried that he's gonna be left hanging, but with the way he was speaking I'm more inclined to believe he was more worried about Maverick's wellbeing than himself. Ice almost looked resigned. He knew it was gonna get dismissed because that's the military for you, but he still wanted to try to vouch for Mav to stay groundside, if only to keep his mind at bay.

But Maverick heard him, and as usual, he read it as an insult. He wasn't wrong to assume Ice didn't believe him capable of flying the mission, which wouldn't be a lie, but failed to realize that he had more than one reason to want Maverick on the ground rather than in the air. And for the first time, Maverick believes him.

Up until this point, Mav dismissed all of Ice's so called 'insults' because he was certain in and of himself. But now he isn't anymore.

And it affects his performance in the air. I'm not saying he was as shitty as he was at the start of that combat because of what he overheard, but I am saying that it certainly didn't help matters in the slightest.

So their weird 'stepping-on-eggshells' situation is all over the place by that point. Because they started to care about each other despite not being what one would call proper friends yet. It's establishing a potential friendship by implying that 1. Ice cares about Mav's wellbeing and 2. Mav cares about what Ice thinks.

On the ground, they have the wingman exchange, and their suddenly buddy buddy. Thing is, it wasn't sudden at all.

They've been setting this up the entire fucking movie.

Going back to what I said at the beginning: Ice thinks Mav is dangerous and Mav thinks Ice is stuck-up and controlling. After the Layton, they still think those things because they weren't wrong to begin with. What changed was that instead of seeing it as something that pitted them against each other, it was seen as something that simply was about the other, and that there was no changing it. It could be good.

Mav being dangerous could be good and Ice being stuck-up and controlling could be good, because those were just traits of who they were. By the end of the movie they didn't change how they saw each other, just how they interpreted each other.

And it was built up during the entire fucking movie.

There was a reason to why they acted the way they did with each other because of the stilted interpretation they had of each other. From rivalry to friendship (and perhaps more later down the line), it's glaringly obvious throughout that it wasn't a sudden shift, it was exponential.

That's why I think it was so well developed, because you could see it coming.

[larkspur777]

moon of my life.

my sun and stars.

@pscentral event 29: warm and cool

(in/sp)