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Redraw of one of my favorite scenes from the manga ✦

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Get there.

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Reading book to young Sam vs READING BOOK TO YOUNG SAM 💀

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I've seen the theory that Vimes, Vetinari, and Moist are a coven. Makes sense. So much of Vimes' character seems to reflect a lot of the 'headology' we see from Weatherwax and Tiffany Aching. But I don't think I've seen anyone talking about how witches form covens to keep other witches in check; to 'keep them from cackling' and going mad with power.

Time and time again, we see how important it is that Vimes, Moist, and Vetinari need other people to keep them in line. If it wasn't for Vetinari, Moist would revert back to his con-artist ways. And Vimes? How many books revolve around Vimes wanting to use his authority in ways he knows are unjust in order to solve a problem? Like with witches, being a police officer comes with knowing when not to exert power unnecessarily. Then there's Vetinari. Omg. Vetinari is sort of fascinating-- in some ways, you'd think he'd be the most likely to cackling. The man is a literal tyrant. But he and Vimes are always keeping the other in check-- basically always reminding the other not to step out of line.

I know that most of this boils down to Pratchett's own philosophies about human interaction. But, idk. I think with the coven theories it's just a cool idea I haven't seen discussed too much.

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“We are here, and this is now.” Constable Visit, a strict believer in the Omnian religion, occasionally quoted that from their holy book. Vimes understood it to mean, in less exalted copper speak, that you have to do the job that is in front of you.

--Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

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Old miraculous art be upon yee!

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Simulacrums of luck, day 6: REVELATION

She’s ok she’s just gonna need some doliprane

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yesterday's halloween piece

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remember when i said every presidential election comes down to the absolute most checked the fuck out people in the country

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The cover art for Cinder in comparison to what actually happened in the story is so fucking funny to me.

Cinder on the inside cover, with perfectly done makeup, hair in a pretty bun, dressed in an elegant, form fitting dress, equipped with her shiny new leg and silk gloves delicately rushing down the stairs, feeling pretty: “Oh dear I hope I don’t lose my new leg. Gosh, I don’t want Kai to know who I am.”

Cinder in the book, bolting out of the palace like a bat out of hell in her dead sister’s ruined gown and her own equally as ruined silk gloves, mud all over her face, hair plastered to her forehead, sweating a storm, stumbling on a rusty old leg that is too small for her and is clearly spitting nuts and bolts, all after making a huge scene that made her look like a crazy obsessed fan to any casual observer: “FUCK SHIT FUCKING HELL GET YOUR MOTHER FUCKING ASS OUT OF MY GODDAMN WAY I GOTTA GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE AND MY GETAWAY CAR IS FUCKING TOTALED. FUCK.”

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Cinder is the funniest, most iconic character. I don’t make the rules. Her humour carries a majority of the series. And pair her with KAI? The sassmaster with humour as well? Unstoppable, overpowered, top tier, perfect pairing I fear

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Cress is so funny in Winter, she’s hiding for her life and then really said ‘I have a leg cramp and I’m gonna make it everyone’s problem’ and then when she’s about to get thrown in a prison cell she turns to her guard and says, ‘Okay but what if you… didn’t?’ She’s making sales pitches to people about to kill her. And she bursts into sobs when she runs into one of her friends because she does NOT want to be there and deal with this on her own and honestly, that’s the most realistic, logical reaction any one has ever had to anything in these books

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Cresswell first meeting

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actually fucking losing my mind over how kai, whenever he sees that cinder is uncomfortable does anything he can to make her more comfortable. like when he bought her silk gloves because he knew she didn’t take her gloves off & that she wouldn’t take them off in front of him. he literally apologized when cinder is mortified that he saw her medical records, “you were a fugitive and i needed to know more about you and i... i'm sorry.“ we see her internal thoughts, “she squeezed her eyes shut. she'd seen the diagram of her cyborg implants. every wire. every synthetic organ. every manufactured panel. thinking about it made her feel nauseous. she couldn't imagine what someone else would think when they saw it. what kai must have thought.” he realizes that it is a big deal to her and apologizes. when she shows him her retina display in her eye, he calls it brilliant, and gets her consent before removing her wrists from her face. and not to mention this beautiful scene, “a tingle traipsed down her spine at how he was studying her, almost in childish awe, and how he was so close, and how he was still holding her wrists. he seemed to realize it at the same time. his expression changed suddenly, and she knew he wasn't looking at the retina display anymore, or even her synthetic eyes, he was looking at her.” and not to mention, at the end of winter when he tells cinder, “i don't care if you wear military boots and cargo pants. i just might. good.” he understands that she does not like wearing dresses, and wants to make sure she’s comfortable.

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Cinder is jealous. She's jealous of her step-sisters. They have pretty clothes and soft hands and a doting mother. She has none of which. Her sister Peony is her only human friend and even seeing her in a ballgown sparks "envy" in Cinder, because Peony gets a dress and can go to the ball. Cinder can't.

She doesn't believe she could be pretty. She's too clunky, she's not curvy. She pins it down to being cyborg or just naturally inadequate. Cinder doesn't have nice clothes or fancy things. Kai gives her gloves and they are "the most beautiful thing she had ever owned." And then they are ruined, like all the pretty things in her life. She has to survive, endure, and with that she doesn't have time for prettiness.

But Kai's first impression of her is that she's "cute" and "pretty." He calls her pretty in public, and he calls her pretty in his private thoughts. "Your pretty new mechanic in the lobby", "the pretty young mechanic at the market." He finds her gorgeous with her glamour, and his "knees threatened to buckle" in her beauty. Everyone else thought she was gorgeous, but no one was swooning the way he was. The glamour had amplified the attraction he'd already had towards her.

Thorne, upon seeing a cyborg stumble into his jail cell, has the first instinct to flirt with her. Not recoil, because of her metal and skin, but flirt because she's a girl and that's his favourite pastime. And what distinguished her from the many other pretty girls he normally flirted with? To him, "her irritation made her prettier". Her disgruntled personality, who she is, is her prettiness.

Adri tells Cinder that if she can't cry, she can't feel love. She does love, she loves so much, but she doesn't have time to grieve her sister or her anonymity or her freedom when she has a revolution to start. She has to tough it out.

When she's bound up in Kai's arms she feels safe, delicate, "almost like a princess."

Cinder pretends she doesn't have a crush on Kai because having a crush on a celebrity is "preadolescent," the trademark of immature, lovesick teenage girls. How can she be girly when she's a grimy mechanic? She "doesn't know the first thing about makeup", because do you think Adri would have ever let her buy some to try? Would Cinder have even bothered, believing nothing could improve a cyborg?

She dreams of "going to the ball and dancing with the prince." And when Iko teases her, Cinder says, "we all have our weaknesses". It is a weakness to be in love, because someone like Kai couldn't love her. She imagines being at the ball, "jealous of the girls who swooned to catch Prince Kai's attention." Jealous that they can be open with their attraction, jealous that he would pick them over her.

But he loves her. And when he does, she can't process the feeling "of being desired". She wants to carve 'C + K' into a wall, then berates herself for such "whimsy." Because deep down, she's always wanted to be wanted, and that truth is her weakness. But war doesn't last forever, and soon, she has no reason to hide that. There's no reason it would be a weakness.

Cinder is comfortable in baggy cargo pants and messy hair but she also dreams of wearing a beautiful ballgown. She loves her coronation dress. She calls the empress crown 'stunning.'

She never becomes obsessed with frills or glitter, but she slowly leans into soft, pretty things. She has a necklace from Kai and her engagement ring. It's sparkly and yet, Cinder, the so-called 'tough, aloof tomboy' thinks it makes her metal hand look "elegant". Maybe she starts wearing bracelets and earrings because they don't bother her when she isn't working on something mechanical. She doesn't even notice until Thorne jokes that she wears more metal in jewellery than the whole metal of her hand.

Maybe she buys herself a new set of tools with pink and blue iridescent handles simply because finds them pretty. Maybe when her friends tease her about how in love she is, she starts to acknowledge it.

Cinder is not some stereotype of a leading female character who is strong and as such cannot be feminine or soft or emotional. Was she given the chance to be?

Let her be soft. Let her be delicate. Let her pretty.