platinumgigi

[platinumgigi]

hey look guys, it's time for my obligatory coming out of hiding to say that it's ArtFight season!! i actually won't be able to participate for a little while, unfortunately, because i'm going on a trip for a couple weeks. :( but i've still got some attacks i plan to draw when i get back. so you can find my ArtFight page right here, in the bigger link below, or look at my previous ArtFight posts if you want to do that, for some reason.

happy ArtFight you guys!!

[platinumgigi]

you know, in light of the Great James Somerton Callout Double Feature™ recently, it made me think back to when i used to watch James' videos. i wasn't an avid fan and never watched his streams or anything so i couldn't have any inkling of the plagiarism on my own, but this all now reminded me of one instance where he made a point of something in one of his videos that was so blatantly wrong, it made me wonder "wait...did you even watch the thing you're talking about?"

and that was with his video on the Owl House, because i believe there was a bit near-ish to the end where he's talking about the open queer representation in TOH, and at the time the video came out the show itself hadn't concluded yet, but he mentioned alongside the not only very canon Lumity as representation the show had to offer, he also mentioned...that the show was hinting at there being a potential romantic relation between Hunter and Gus????

and that had grabbed my attention and made me confused, because...no?? did we watch the same show??? cause if you've watched the Owl House not only would you know that Hunter was 16 and Gus was 12, which is really stretching it in terms of acceptable age gaps, but also...their relationship was not like that, and didn't have any sort of romantic subtext to try and grasp at. the way they hung out and interacted was much more of a "dudes being bros" way (silly headbump handshake, comforting each other in their insecurities and what people saw them as "weak" for), and i'm pretty sure even at the time the episode came out where Gus and Hunter officially became friends, Hunter was already showing signs of crushing on Willow???

so, in retrospect, it now occurs to me that the reason James mentioned that was not because he had simply misinterpreted Gus and Hunter's interactions and the shows intentions for them in the future, but it was deliberately James grasping at straws to shoehorn in some kind of MLM representation into the show where there wasn't any. and while, yeah, in an openly queer show, still not seeing yourself represented kinda sucks, but James Somerton is clearly a person who doesn't value anything in the LGBTQ+ community other than the G. he thinks being a gay man (especially a cis white gay man) is the only real way of being queer, or at least the most "oppressed" type of queer, probably because news media only ever gave significant attention to the deaths of cis white gay men during the AIDS crisis, and that is pretty much James' only point of reference in "historical events that happened to queer people" because god knows he didn't care enough to research and write on his own, let alone research and write about queer history involving queer people who weren't cis white gay men like him.

and it's especially shitty that he that he tries to force this idea of Hunter and Gus having romantic subtext right after he talks about Luz and Amity's relationship. i'm personally not the biggest fan of Lumity within the story of the Owl House, but the representation is really great, especially for something in a disney cartoon. so him trying to then detract all the sapphic representation that Lumity provided and even built the show upon with an MLM relationship that not only is weird in context but also never even happened?? the AUDACITY.

and what gets me even more is that, by the end of the show, while Hunter does end up in a relationship with Willow, it's not a straight relationship. it was confirmed by the show's creator Dana Terrace after it concluded that Hunter is bisexual and Willow is pansexual, and while yeah, real shame that there wasn't any actual expression of those facts during the show's runtime, it's still nice to know that they're queer, and thus their relationship is queer. it's also great to have a canon bi/pan couple when there's STILL an immense infighting problem between bi and pan people thinking that one of the sexualities is trying to erase the other due to their similar (but not same) definitions. so having them not only coexist but also be in love is great!

but you just know, you just KNOW, that even if James' video was made after the show's official conclusion, he would probably either:

A: ignore Hunter and Willow's relationship and try to play on plausible deniability that they're just friends since they never had any great romantic gestures like Lumity's confession and many kisses

or

B: make a shitty argument out of it that the Owl House "could have gone leaps and bounds further with their representation, but Disney was so homophobic that Hunter couldn't possibly get to also be gay, so he had to end up with a woman :("

and while i think both are probably just as possible as each other, my money would be on option B, because god damn it this man can't praise a piece of queer media if it doesn't somewhat center around or involve gay men, and leave it to James Somerton to try and project himself onto the white teenage boy and think that if he were gay, that'd somehow make the story better.

this man actively hates women, especially queer women whom he loves to pretend are actually straight women, and if he had the chance would still do everything he can to try and make a queer relationship between a man and a woman into some woeful narrative of "what could have been" if they just made the man gay.

god, from this singular moment alone where i had a very questionable opinion of James, the knowledge i have now completely recontextualizes everything. this guy is a plagiarist, a misogynist, but most of all, an internalized homophobe who replaces the word "gay" in the content he steals from with "LGBTQ+" and "queer" because he actually *would* just like to use the word gay, but if he did it would make it more obvious that he's plagiarizing, so he instead makes "queer" and "LGBTQ+" be synonymous with gay to make it look like he's actually being inclusive.

and i don't really remember much about his video about Korra, i don't know if i even watched it, so the only frame of reference that i have is what Hbomberguy said about it in his video, and i frankly do not want to go and give James anymore views he has not earned and will never deserve, but i think he did a similar thing in trying to grasp at straws with a potential queer relationship between Mako and some guy who i don't remember (i really didn't watch much of Korra sorry) but that also kind of was not the case of their relationship at all either, from what i've heard. at most it was just people shipping them, especially since the footage James Somerton used in his video was from a fucking ship AMV and not even from any of the high resolution episodes. so again it seems like there's an instance of James trying to shove in an MLM relationship that doesn't exist in a show whose lead representation is a WLW couple.

again i could be wrong, and correct me if i am, but unless there's a convenient re-upload of that entire video on another channel or even another video website, i'm not going to give James' channel any more attention than it unrightfully has.

fuck this guy.

[platinumgigi]

You can only reblog this on Nov 16 2023💥

[platinumgigi]

oh shit you guys it's ArtFight season again!! i'm really hoping to go all out this time, because last year i was only able to get three and a half attacks in before my computer completely deleted itself from existence. but! this time i will do everything in my power to get farther than last time and send out more attacks! you can find my ArtFight page right here or in the much bigger, more noticeable link below.

some come attack me! hope to see you come up with! 😈 (please attack Anarchy she's my favorite /hj)

[platinumgigi]

hiiii so I finished watching TDP season 4 and uhhh...it's...not what I was expecting?

I didn't hate it, there was a lot that I liked about it, some stuff that I loved about it. But there were also some things that I... really did not love about it.

I guess my main problem is just...Rayla. only because I do not know where the series is taking her.

Ever since the trailer where we finally got to see her again, I was all aboard the train of suspecting that she wasn't the real Rayla. Everything about her felt off, from her clothing comprised of dark pinks, purples and silvers (while I know that this is a color palette pretty similar to the ones a lot of other moonshadow elves have, I can't help but immediately think 'starry evening sky' when looking at her outfit) to the fact that she just randomly has a fucking star monkey with her?? Like...um??

And upon going into the new season with the theory that this might not be the real Rayla in mind, things made a lot of sense for a while; the way she acts, the way she treats other people (especially Callum), her priorities, etcetera. Especially with the scene when she first arrives back in Katolis and reunites with Callum—she just so happens to conveniently appear through the window (also, the window in the High Mage's study and not somewhere she'd know he would more likely be?) while Callum is repeating the translated runes of the mirror, with her totally not star-inspired color palette and totally unsuspicious star monkey and overall just pretends like coming back after more than two years since she left him that everything is fine? That they can just be normal again? She honestly doesn't seem really all that guilty and apologetic for it at all either???? None of it felt like Rayla at all—especially not from all the things we know she's been through and the lessons she's learned.

And I think the Fake!Rayla theory could probably still be possible, I guess my issue with the season lies in that...I think they're actually intending for this to be the real Rayla?

I don't know. It's 5AM as I'm writing this, I need to sleep, maybe I'll do some rewatching come tomorrow, but I think the best way I can sum up my thoughts is just that...like, it was a good season. I enjoyed it. But because I really don't know whether or not the Rayla we see in this season with her VERY SUSPICIOUS PET STAR MONKEY WITH PORTAL POWERS is the real Rayla, and honestly I'm trying to cling to all the hope that I can that this, at least in some way, isn't the true Rayla, because if it is, then god damn did the writers assassinate her character. (No pun intended.)

[platinumgigi]

it is almost time for TDP SEASON 4!! and i have filled out a bingo card with my predictions for the occasion!! let us see how wrong i'm gonna be this time! (also idk if this was an official bingo template that the tdp socials or someone else made, but props to whoever made it you did a bangin' job, as well as big thanks to the person whose predictions i erased cause i stole the picture from their own post LMAO)

[platinumgigi]

oh, hey, while i'm talking about Lunter, here's something that i just realized on one of my several rewatches of Thanks to Them that keeps me up at night:

For their Halloween costumes, Luz is dressed as Azura from the Good Witch Azura series, and for Hunter, he's dressed as Chief Engineer O'Bailey from the Cosmic Frontier series.

(It's also super cute that they both based their costumes off of characters from book series' that they like, I just realized that they have that in common.)

But onto my main point:

Earlier in the episode, they present Hunter as intending on going out into the average, everyday human world dressed in that costume, because after reading Cosmic Frontier, it's basically the only concept of "human male fashion" that he knows. Of course it's neither up-to-date nor remotely realistic, but they emphasize that this is what Hunter considers a good human disguise.

So. When you take that into consideration.

Luz and Hunter's Halloween costumes.

ARE A WITCH AND A HUMAN.

I swear to GOD if this show never intended on Luz and Hunter ever being romantically involved then WHY do they keep paralleling Caleb and Evelyn. Like it's so soulmates/destiny/reincarnated lovers that I cannot STAND IT anymore. 😭😭

And it especially gets me too that during the Haunted Hayride, we're constantly given Luz and Hunter's reactions to the story of the Brothers Wittebane.

While yeah, sure, I know they're the only ones who actually know anything about the story and has any sort of importance to them at the time, but when they keep showing us Luz and Hunter between the reveal of Evelyn and how she "enticed" Caleb into joining her in the Boiling Isles? And with a depiction of Flapjack no less?? When Luz was the one who brought Flapjack and Hunter together in Hunting Palismen???

Like, view these two's relationship however you want, you're totally valid. But goddammit there is subtext here and it is driving me insane.

[platinumgigi]

Only one more sleep till The Dragon Prince [screams internally]

[platinumgigi]

hey since in my last post i vaguely mentioned that i like Lunter, why don't i ramble about it a little bit because i really like Lunter

i've honestly really liked them as a pairing ever since Hunting Palismen, and my descent into absolute brain-rotting madness for them was very much assisted by the actual personal attack on me that was Hollow Mind because, wow, okay, just put some of my most favorite character dynamic/relationship tropes into an episode while simultaneously ripping my heart out and then kicking me while i'm down with the knowledge that Luz is in a relationship with someone else during almost the entire time of even knowing Hunter. yeah okay cool cool, i have totally chill and normal thoughts and feelings about them like a regular person. i'm good.

but one thing i absolutely adore about them, especially, is the parallels they have to Caleb & Evelyn. and while i would absolutely go on a 72-paragraph thesis of a tangent on why i'm so in love with ships that reference or directly parallel being like a previous romantic relationship and subtly or explicitly stating that they were fated or destined to be together, i will hold back on that for now to instead write a thesis of a tangent on another reason why i love that they parallel Caleb and Evelyn: they parallel them better than any other relationship in the show.

i have seen a fair bit of people try to argue for the potential parallels and symbolisms between other characters' relationships and Caleb & Evelyn's, such as with Luz and Amity or with Hunter and Willow (hell i think i saw one post somewhere trying to connect Caleb & Evelyn to Eda & Raine and honestly? i respect that tenacity) and i don't think that drawing some similarities between Caleb & Evelyn's relationship to the different ones Luz and Hunter have in their lives is bad or wrong in any way; i do think that the good ol' Owl House crew were deliberately trying to make some connections there, especially since they seem pretty adamant about Luz & Amity and Hunter & Willow being endgame. but the thing about it for me, though, is that none of those other ships parallel Caleb & Evelyn as thoroughly and believably as Luz and Hunter do.

like, let's take a step back and just look at the structures of both Caleb & Evelyn's lives and incentives and Luz and Hunter's:

For Caleb and Evelyn, they obviously were from two completely different walks of life, both figuratively and literally: Evelyn was a witch, likely born and bred from the Boiling Isles itself and possibly found herself stuck in the human realm (potentially on accident too), and was most definitely hated, feared, and utterly rebuked from human society for just being who and what she was. And then there was Caleb, a human who had assimilated to a lifestyle of murdering/supporting the murder of people like Evelyn in order to fit in with good ol' 1613 society, likely just to find a life where he and his younger brother could be safe, happy, healthy, and accepted.

When Caleb and Evelyn met, there was obviously some kind of spark or bond between them, regardless of however it may have initially presented itself, that was strong enough for Caleb to end up retreating with Evelyn into the demon realm and learning more about the world and its magic, over staying with and protecting his younger brother Philip, as he seemed to have done all his life up until meeting Evelyn.

For Hunter and Luz, they also come from very different walks of life: Hunter is a magically bio-engineered clone of Caleb made by Belos/Philip for the purpose of "rebirthing" his older brother as his loyal right hand man that would never leave or betray him ever again. Hunter was never able to truly be his own person even before he found out that he was a Grimwalker, and never got to gain any of the life experiences that a normal person could (i.e. biologically being able to perform magic, learning about the worlds and realms, uncovering and studying true history that Belos had banned or covered up). He knew nothing of socializing with people his age and rarely ever got to leave the Emperor's castle as it was, and his only reason for being alive was secretly just a sick and twisted way for Philip Wittebane to live out the fantasy life he'd always wanted; one without witches, and one where his brother would finally stay with him.

And then there's Luz, a human girl who, while having the full opportunity of learning new things and making friends, never got to do so, as she was a social outcast for all her life because her own interests and quirks didn't align with that of her peers, or most of anyone who knew her. Thus she was drawn to the many mediums of art, and the genres of fantasy and fiction, where she could immerse herself in a story and imagine herself as the hero who goes on epic quests and makes a bunch of friends along the way. And when she found herself in a world where all of that could become true, she discovered that despite being physically and biologically different from everyone around her, she was so much more at home with the people who were once, in human history, considered to be vile, evil monsters.

When Luz and Hunter met, there was obviously some kind of spark or bond between them, regardless of their initial tension and hostility towards each other, that was strong enough for Hunter to go against the orders of Emperor Belos for Luz, and then eventually betray and flee from Belos altogether with her, over staying with and defending the man who had (quite literally) given him life and a home, as he had done all his life up until meeting Luz.

Like, on this pretty basic story level, you can obviously see that these two pairings mirror each other almost perfectly. Of course there are some differences between them, and some places where one character might parallel the opposite one in the relationship (i.e. Luz and Caleb both being humans, Evelyn being a witch and Hunter technically being one too). But overall, just from this level, you can just see how well they all reflect and complement each other, how aspects of their characters beautifully contrast one another as well as the antagonists of the story, and how both their relationships, despite the adversity they face for being who and what they are and the type of lives they'd lived growing up, manage to find each other, and be the catalyst for one of them to finally take the plunge and go after what they truly wants rather than staying in their normal lives and continue doing what they were demanded of.

For a relationship that the fandom (and possibly even the show itself too) really try to push as only being that of siblings or familial love, Luz and Hunter sure do have a fuck ton of natural romantic coding, down to the parallels with Caleb & Evelyn (aka the true power couple of The Owl House as they're pretty much the entire reason for present-day story happening) to their witty yet childish banter and arguments, to their literal enemies-to-friends-to-something-more set up, and their overall organic chemistry and fun and intriguing ways they play off of each other and ALSO their relationship's narrative relevance that actively moves the plot forward and heavily impacts it—

Yeah, suffice it to say, while I definitely understand and respect those who just see Hunter and Luz as siblings or just good friends or just overall prefer them in different relationships, I just can't get over the gold mine of romantic potential these two have, regardless of what the Owl House crew were planning their relationship to be like from the very beginning.

And honestly, if they truly did always intend for Hunter and Luz to have something more akin to a sibling relationship than anything remotely romantic, all I can say to that is: LMAO. Cause like, bro, if you really wanted that to be the case, you kinda accidentally fucked up and gave them way too many parallels and similarities to the most romantic relationship in all of the show. Just sayin'. 🤣🤣

[platinumgigi]

me in the past making a new post on Tumblr: oh wow it's been a minute, haha sorry guys but don't worry i think i'm gonna start posting a lot more now!

me in present day, having made only a total of 3 posts in the past year, a very depressingly small number of them actually being art that i drew whilst simultaneously ignoring the separate blog i made to post my art and never once posting a single thing on there, and only doom scrolling through Tumblr at 2am wondering why i'm an insomniac while i consistently only ever like posts instead of reblogging or commenting on them because i can't bring myself to do it even thought it would most definitely mean WAY more to the posters if i did either of those things, and now i have returned to Tumblr once more to pretend like i'm going to start posting more regularly again when i 90% most likely won't, carrying distain for ships and fandoms i used to like and now harboring a sad collection of rarepair ships that i hold dear to my heart that the majority of the fandoms i'm in constantly only ever view as siblings, and overall still not knowing what the fuck i'm actually doing here and having no real mutuals but still liking posts that say "tag a mutual that you'd do this with" and will probably only ever continue to lurk on this app like a crackhead hiding in someone's basement while acting like i have the personality of a grizzled australian comedian whose sardonic humor and jaded views on the world are lovable and endearing to the people around me when, in reality, i'm just a barely-passable-adult white chick sitting in my room eating Ben & Jerry's cheesecake ice cream with no idea of what i'm going to do tomorrow: sup.

[platinumgigi]

Oh shit you guys guess who's on Artfight!! This is gonna be my first time, and I'm really excited for it! So if you wanna check out my profile, maybe even send an attack my way, you can find me here! If you attack, I just might get revenge... 😏

[platinumgigi]

i know i've like, never posted about anything owl house related but hey season 2B is happening really soon so why not start now

anyway, in light of the show finally returning, i've made some bingo cards of my predictions/hopes/wild guesses for how the rest of the season (and maybe even the rest of the series) will play out. and obviously i had so many thoughts on what could happen that i just had to make more than one card lmao

anyway, i'm prepared to do horribly like i did with the cr3 bingo card i made, so take some of these predictions with a grain of salt

[platinumgigi]

the tlovm season finale episodes in a nutshell

i rest my case.

[platinumgigi]

y'know i definitely see the appeal of imogen x laudna, it's really cute. and at first i thought i was going to be all over this ship just like the rest of the fandom. but now i can't really get all that into it—not because of any negative feelings toward it, it's just that my funky little ace brain has firmly grabbed onto of the concept of aroace Laudna and will not let go

[platinumgigi]

a man may drink and not be drunk a man may fight and not be slain a man may court a pretty girl and perhaps be welcomed back again

but since it has so ought to be by a time to rise and a time to fall come fill to me the parting glass good night and joy be to you all 🥂

[platinumgigi]

Pretty lady I would give my bones to😳

[platinumgigi]

i adore that the EXU characters are here, i absolutely didn't expect it and it was such a nice surprise. everyone is speculating they won't stick around for the whole campaign, and because i don't wanna get my hopes up i'm expecting that to be the case, but if they are in it for the long haul and Robbie is a permanent cast member, i will literally die of happiness. and i'm loving the inclusion of Bertrand as well; i know having a full cast of completely new characters is what most people were hoping for and i sympathize with that, but in my opinion i find this much more exciting and i'm so stoked to see what our new crew will get into, new characters and old.

so how are we feeling about everything?? do you guys like the exandria unlimited characters being included? are we liking bertrand?