#// hopefully this makes sense

[can-of-pringles]

Recently I watched this tiktok about writing disabled characters and one of the tips was that your character's disability needs to have a plot point/purpose in the story.

As someone who's disabled, let me explain why I don't agree.

Now obviously if you want to add that plot aspect go ahead (within reason and respectfully) but I don't think it should be required.

Because it's not accurate. In real life, there's not a plot point/purpose of me being disabled. It's simply just how I exist. My disabilities don't serve a purpose. It's just how I am.

And I think that implying that disabilities need to serve a purpose goes down that slippery slope of "your disability is only acceptable if it benefits something somehow" or "this disabled person is only valid because their disability can help others in some way, be exploited maybe"

You wouldn't say this about any other trait. Or at least perhaps you shouldn't. People who have certain traits or other aspects of them are literally just existing, not to serve a plot point.

[chocostrwberry]

Sentimaggedon!!

Sentimonster designs I came up with bc I was thinking about Argos’s debut in my AU! Bc I’m dumb and I haven’t thought too deep about him as a character to the story yet-

They were originally suppose to all be based on the seven deadly sins, especially Gasumptious (gluttony) and Elvy (envy). But I also wanted to branch into maybe Felix’s other hidden emotions, like his deep love for Kagami and his fear of being replaced by Adrien (Bride and Athazagora).

Argos becomes an official enemy when Dragonbug tells him they need to be destroyed. He defends them, saying they’re just “infants” and can learn how to behave properly with time. But a frustrated and exhausted Dragonbug she tells him they aren’t like humans and are created for one purpose: to serve and destroy. This hits home with Argos, and he develops a fear and hatred for Ladybug and swears his loyalty to Madame Morphisa afterwards in order to take her down and prove just how monstrous he can be.

I’m still kinda trying to find a way to make this concept work in my au. He promised to serve her in exchange for the peacock miraculous, and she wants him to use it to take Ladybug’s miraculous. In a novice attempt, he might have just starting creating multiple sentimonsters that he thought were harmless enough (something she did NOT expect), but they quickly spiraled out of control. It’s much easier to make sentimonsters based on others emotions, because you can predict which one you will create it off of. But instead, he chose his own, which makes it more difficult to tell how the sentimonster will act. I think it would show the aspect that these creatures do have a mind of their own, compared to previous Mayura sentimonsters who were easily controlled by their akumas!!

Red Moon

Red Moon is obviously already canon, but her power is instead hypnosis. If you get caught in her light, you stop whatever you are doing to stare at her. The streets of Paris become like a statue exhibit: countless of unlucky citizens are bathing in her glow, staring at the beauty of the red moon.

Gasumptious

As he devours, Gasumptious grows bigger and bigger. He’ll eat anything, so beware! After finishing most of the city, Gasumptious sits atop the Eiffel Tower and gnaws on its metal posts.

Elvy

Elvy lives in the sewers. She can control water and uses it to drain you of happy memories, which she keeps in floating green orbs and guards for herself.

It’s so silly to me how the manifestation of Felix’s jealousy of Adrien is fought and defeated by Chat Noir, who is Adrien ehehehheeh.

She also sounds like a Pokémon!! Probably like a Lapras, or the one that trills really pretty

Athazagora

A timid creature, Athazagora took over the catacombs, and hides in the shadows. You can hear the creaking and rattling of its wooden limbs in the dark as it stalk you. If you can’t escape, it envelops you in its cloak of darkness, never to be seen again.

Bride

The supposed advisor of Argos. She never leaves his side, and is always whispering something in his ear. To protect Argos, she showcases her ability to turn her arm into a long spear/sword, incredible strength and mobility, and that her body is made of an indestructible crystal.

Plus, he can make multiple sentimonsters bc he’s a sentihuman himself (Other people can’t. You can only make one, kind of like how the Butterfly miraculous can only Akumatize one person at a time, unless they share an object. Current excuse I’m going with that makes semi-sense HEHEHE) . So Lila totally wants to use that to her own advantage!

Ofc he fails, but she’s impressed with his resolve (and the lengths he was willing to go, albeit unintentionally), especially after sharing her goal of destroying Ladybug. Lila was feeling the effects of unification and now has a willing minion to do her bidding whenever she pleases.

If I decide to go with this plot, Lila has to end up forgetting Felix because of the curse. But she doesn’t care: all she really needs is Argos. I might need to retcon her revenge against Felix because of this but idm! It wasn’t very important to the plot anyways!

I was considering having Dragonbug in this episode, since she could use Perfection to snipe Red Moon out of the sky! The lucky charm would be like a wand that creates a sticky translucent web to keep the sentimonsters secure so they can go find their amoks.

And a sentimonster I never ended up including, Ava. I just didn’t have a reason to put her in there but I liked the yin and yang style of her design!!

[lambment]

I want to make my own comics of cotl, I have an idea, I have a story. But I don't know where to start, how to introduce because I struggle with my art style

Any suggestions?

honestly drawing is like the last thing im thinking of when im making a comic. Im not sure what your process looks like, everyone’s is different, but I'll share mine.

take a slice of that story: usually a minor conflict or a piece of dialogue you'd like to explore, something thats manageble, and begin by sketching out the main storybeats.

dont worry about the quality of your drawings until near the end of the comic. theres a reason why storyboards are so loose, they scrap so many drawings bcuz theyre trying to get a point across to serve a story, not make illustrations. I wouldnt clean up your drawings until you’re near certain no other changes will be made.

my focus when making a comic goes in this order:

plot/dialogue

composition/staging (placement of characters/setting/camera)

actually drawing

If it’s mainly because of “art style” I prommy you, the main thing that people will be paying attention to is the story. You gotta start somewhere, look at the one punch man og manga for example.

[skellygearz]

Little sequential thing 🐍 looove this song

[hoofpeet]

Im suddenly invested in hearing about your fursonas/personas and how you perceive them bc ive never been able to stick to anything when trying to make representations of myself

Oh shore :] I haven't really explicitly laid out the things on main I guess so here V

[deadchaoticcosmos]

1976

regulus: hey, your eyes have a little green in them

james: *grinning like an idiot, he has only ever been told he has brown eyes* huh

1996

draco: hey, your eyes have a little green in them

harry: *grinning like an idiot, he has only ever been told he has his mother's eyes* huh

imagine the huh as kinda a laugh

[theflashjaygarrick]

There are so many heroes/anti heroes who are willing to kill and are still accepted in the dc vigilante community, and even begrudgingly tolerated by Batman. If Jason Todd came back to life and killed the joker I believe the majority of heroes willingly welcome him back.

But the thing is he made it about Batman as much as the Joker. He was just as mad at Bruce for not avenging him as he was at the Joker for killing him. He made sure Bruce was there watching when he tried to kill the Joker and that he felt complicit in it. From that moment post crisis Jason went from an anti hero who kills on a revenge quest to a Batman villain. This only became more evident when he chose to hurt completely uninvolved people (like Mia Dearden) seemingly just to get a rise out of Bruce.

And that's the tragic thing, in choosing to involve Bruce he turned himself into an antagonist of the DC hero community. He was no longer just an agent of bloody vengeance (like Kate Spencer or Helena Bertinelli), and certainly not as a person who would only kill in the most extreme cases (like Wonder Woman). Instead he came back desperate to pull The Dark Knight into the bloodshed and the despair of breaking his vow. And if he apologised, disavowed that behaviour and made amends they might forgive him knowing Jason but that seems unrealistic. And after that attack on another hero's (and his own father's) values and such a brutal violation of his boundaries I feel like Jason's relationship with the broader community is going to be inherently strained. A lot more than if his one crime was being a vigilante who kills.

[soup-mother]

I'm kinda retreading old ground here re. australian anti americanism but basically just as chauvinism (e.g "we should control our own destiny" to be imperialists), but it's always interesting to think about what would happen with pine gap if the US left.

because realistically it's not going to stop being used for surveillance and military targeting, it's just going to be ran entirely by Australians. like military bases aren't suddenly fine when it's an exclusively Australian military occupation of stolen land, but talking about the Australian military as occupiers here makes people really angry.

[fulcrum-art-fox]

Seeing a lot of “there was no reason for Isha to be in the story” complaints and aside from the fact that story wise I actually love having new and varied characters interacting in interesting and unexpected ways that’s kind of a large part of what I come to stories for, and aside from the whole narrative weight of a character who’s being called Jinx trying a “do over” of her major incident and having it go so catastrophically wrong, I think there’s definitely something to be said for an arc exploring the whole “is it better to have loved and lost than to never love at all?”where sometimes getting the thing you ever wanted and losing it can fuck you over way more. Like, they take Jinx, who adopts this kid and through her reconnects with her childhood self who she’s been struggling to either cast aside or integrate, and also her older sister who she now has a bit of better understanding of having walked a mile in her shoes, and the father who raised her, and for a moment it actually looks like it’ll work this time. And then she loses it all, this wasn’t the same scenario as the end of s1, this was specifically and textually intended as a conscious and deliberate do over, an extension of “it was something I could fix”, and she’s gonna feel like she jinxed it. Jinx was apathetic to her own death at the beginning of s2 but it feels like it’s gonna be way worse now. But Isha did it all so the girl who saved her could live. Jinx is going to have to reckon with the fact that you will love and lose in life, and it’ll be painful, but painful as it is it’s better than never having it at all, and it’s part of that thing that Isha wanted for her, living. And I think that’s a very interesting and crucial question to be asking, especially of a character called Jinx

[plaguecest]

leaking ppls faces on tiktok bc theyre in a proship server is insane. like YOU as an anti decided to join and be around proshippers, why are you gonna get mad whenever they exist

[itsahellworldafterall]

harrow and gideon are just like orpheus and eurydice. cause if we think about the one flesh one end as a sort of marriage or bonding and then gideon dies and harrow begs god to bring her back and he refuses like hades does. then harrow pulls a sneaky and brings gideon back but out of reach like eurydice will always be out of reach for orpheus until he dies. nona’s dreams about gideon holding harrow in the river, them sort of being reunited in death. gideon coming back but without harrow determined to get her back. I can’t. it’s not perfect but it’s them.

[tmmyhug]

rant incoming abt something i’ve observed for a while

i (american) feel like we need better traditions. so many young and queer people in my experience are completely disillusioned with most of our (western) holidays either because they’re related to religion and that’s awkward for many people or because they’ve become Capitalism Lite or both. it’s hard to really enjoy a holiday when it’s overshadowed by the uncomfortable truths behind all of it.

like, christmas is nice because you get time off but it’s a constant reminder that we live in an extremely christian society that chafes at even the idea of other religions trying to exist (happy holidays vs merry christmas drama). non-christian religious holidays get like zero acknowledgement from wider society. no time off work or school, no decor in stores, etc. thanksgiving is nice bc you get to eat good food, but it’s based on colonial bs. valentine’s day is nice in theory but also an inescapable reminder that our society sees you as sad and lonely if you’re not in a relationship and if you’re not willing to spend lots of money on a partner. then theres smaller ones like labor day which is important but hard to enjoy when you’re reminded of how hard we have to fight for even an inch of appreciation or rest for workers in the us. most of the other minor holidays are subsumed by neverending consumerism and advertisement, such as mothers/father’s day.

and tell me if i’m just projecting here. but there are so few actual holidays that we can enjoy that i think it accelerates the homogenization of the seasons w global warming and the isolation and lack of community everyone is struggling with.

this is part of my theory as to why halloween is so incredibly popular with gen z - it’s doesn’t come with religious or historical baggage, doesn’t force people to spend time with families they don’t like or shame people for not fitting into nuclear family structures, isn’t based largely around buying gifts/spending money, and is an important marker in the season of fall. also this is part of why i think we latch on to stupid little anniversaries ie. neil banging out the tunes. it’s lighthearted and silly and is a grounding landmark for the passage of time and it brings us together to have fun.

all this to say we should really promote more holidays that are just. for fun. or for the passage of time. summer solstice. moon landing day. new years does fall into this category. pi day. star wars day. april fools. i really feel like we should be emphasizing and celebrating these unofficial holidays!! bringing people together and hanging out w friends or going out somewhere specific or making specific foods or something. just a regular tradition that we can rely on. yk? it’s so important

[all-l-wanna-do]

guys. so you know how grian and gem repeatedly fail to get mending and all other hermits dont realy have that problem?!!! well i have a theory. so those two raided the ocean temple and they killed. the. elder. guardians. and rhis made rhe ocean mad- they killed its elders its most powerful fish. so those two must be punished.

[servndipityz]

joost show season ended? HUGE day for reader waiting for him at home‼️

[gecko-in-a-can]

something I really like about fallout new Vegas is the different approach it has to the general 1950s Americana aesthetic fallout has.

in fallout 4 you get the best view of it, very white picket fence, all very clean and organized, like something out of a magazine. Even in the wasteland you can see remnants of it, with hairstyles and clothes and some structures bearing a resemblance to the world before the war. New Vegas meanwhile doesn’t shy away from the aesthetic, however it’s made very apparent that the bright lights and slang and pristine dress of the strip are fake, a performance turned lifestyle created because some people are unable to let go of a time long gone by, while the world just outside the gates is in tatters, but moving on as best as they can.

it feels like two separate worlds, and maybe the difference is just due to how much of the pre-war world is left to hold onto, but they really are interesting approaches to how people adapt after disaster and how letting go of the past and moving on take time and aren’t always the path that people, or communities, choose.

[hoofpeet]

is there any neat trick for drawing

like

to start the process

i really love drawing but its always so discouraging to look at the result and realise i dont like it at all

you said you dont feel connected to your art so how are you keep going

That's what warmups are for ! I think people posting furnished "warmups" has given people a bit of a warped idea of what warmups actually are-- but they're not actually supposed to look nice (surprisingly this is advice I learned from ddlc of all places) --Warmups are effectively. Like when a water pipeline is off for a while and then when it comes back on you have to run the faucet for a couple minutes to get all the brown shit out before it's safe again; warmups are just supposed to pre-workout stretches. generally the next drawing after a warmup will come more naturally and look better, etc etc

--and for disconnect . obviously I struggle with this as well but, generally what helps [for me] is to seek out new artists/movies/whatever to pick out what I like about them- and by extent what I enjoy drawing/would like to convey through art . etc