#//But I am WARY

[dutybcrne]

SO MANY BEAUTIFUL NEW GALS

[ale-arro]

been going a little bit insane about this sentence from Ace by Angela Chen for the past week

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Horse Meshi. Delicious, in Horse.

[fisheito]

He's a magician

[seafoamsol]

Hey, different post than usual, but this is just a PSA for people who may follow or have purchased anything from @/kagebros, or are looking to join any of the zines run by them @/allsparkzines. They have a history (and present) of tracing for profit.

I don’t think this one requires an overlay. It’s a trace of the yolopark bumblebee shockwave model kit promotional image, as a “sketch”.

Which they changed, once people noticed it! Changed most of it. They traced a different promotional image for the gun, which remained largely the same, even in the final piece (right).

Their matching Optimus Prime poster is a trace of the still from a [ Paramount promo video ], 36 seconds in.

There are several other examples that I can’t fit into this post without making it overly long, but if you have purchased or have been gifted anything from them, there is a chance it has been traced.

Regarding tracing as a tool:

Go hogwild! Trace all you want! Tracing is a very useful tool for learning shapes and forms, but like any other tool, it’s only useful if you use it correctly. The ultimate goal of tracing is to understand. It’s training wheels. Just don’t hide and lie about it, because as soon as you do, it becomes plagiarism.

Even within the finished versions of the Shockwave poster, it’s still clear where parts have been traced or copied without understanding. It’s a shame, because transformers as a franchise having so many toys makes it very easy to make references!

Here's an example of how I use them:

Luckily for me, the Cybertron toys and models are more or less exactly the same. I don't own the toys, so I have two images from a [ toy reviewer ] on top. Many angles to help me understand exactly what's happening. Granted, I could just ask my friend who does own the toy for him in the same pose, but tracing over that directly would make it too stiff and it wouldn't mesh with my style.

TL;DR: Kage traces, blindly and without disclosure, for profit.

[getgriddled]

best griddlehark modern au 100%not even exaggerating

[strawberrybyers]

if the rumors are true about casting a younger mike, will, and jonathan then i think i will actually go into cardiac arrest if we get a flashback scene of them. like i truly feel like if they’re going to have a scene of them when they’re much younger then it’s because vecna is showing memories to mike or will. i’m praying it’s mike who gets vecna’d because we need a tour of that boy’s brain

[on-a-lucky-tide]

My Instagram knows when I've had a pay day and has a disturbingly good read on me as a person. Also, you know that Simon "Ghost" Riley owns every single one of these.

[stormbros]

How am I supposed to act like I'm fine when Dorian "Orym's my moral compass" Storm got snapped at for speaking up and immediately shut down and checked out of the conversation

[cleoselene]

[tsuki-in-faerun]

so, as i said before FUCK boudicca philtrum in particular. no one will mourn you, you crusty ho.

but also k getting majorly injured and the first thing out of their mouth is telling lemli that they have to lie and tell evan that they're fine. broken ribs, flat on their back, blood coming out of their mouth, knowing what evan will do and k trying to stop a thing that has already happened in the time it took for them to land.

did k ever see evan kill anybody while they were together? i know we're down with murder because fantasy but also, we all agree it's not great for evan's mental health to do a murder, right? and i really don't agree that it's love for k motivating him to kill because k doesn't want that for him. evan killed philtrum because philtrum needed killing and he has assigned himself that role. he would have taken her out, potentially nonlethally, as soon as they saw her if it weren't for their directive from dr. boodle. i think k is entirely incidental to his motivation, tbh. he goes cold when he goes into his shadow. i don't think what he's feeling in that space is anything that i (or bell hooks) would call a love ethic.

[bananonbinary]

my most unpopular opinion i think is that i don't actually like the idea of "fairly compensated labor" (stay with me) because i don't really like the idea that output is connected to your ability to survive at all.

like. the word "fairly" implies here that there is some sort of objective balance between "effort" and "payment," and it's not something we made up based on current cost of living and all that. which has the somewhat nasty corollary that if you DON'T work, you haven't earned that payment, do not deserve it, and in fact you getting it is "unfair." it's also....just really confusing and conceptual? like, you're trying to put a concrete number on someone's time, their concentration, their experience, their materials, AND weigh that against how much food and shelter costs. it's the problem of "unskilled labor," anyone can come along and disagree with you about what any of those things is worth. and the solution can't just be "all labor is worth whatever it costs to live," because again, we start to get into sick days and disability and children and elderly, and it gets muddied again. it makes far more sense to me to say "living is a human right," and then "labor is a social obligation, like voting or jury duty." you pay into society because that's what a society is, not because you need to in order to eat.

to be clear, i am NOT saying people should work for free. and within our current system, we should pay people as best we can to keep them alive and comfortable. i just think when envisioning the future, it's a mistake to continue trying to quantify someone's Societal Contribution with some sort of hard number.

[stealingpotatoes]

Oh my GOD I've fallen down the rabbit hole of your glorious skywalkers apart AU and quite apart from being ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED, I have to know if my boy Cal is around in it?!

yes but i never really developed it!! ok we all know i'm never gonna finish that comic script i'll just tell u guys -- in said script, after leia and anakin free Padme, they find out Luke was taken somewhere else which, after a family recon mission, they find is FORTRESS GODDAMN INQUISITORIUS! (which they assume is bc luke tried to use the force to stop the initial arrest, big mistake huge)

anyway all this to say cal's involvement was a tiny-mentioned cameo to explain why anakin knew how to infiltrate nur (the exact line i wrote in the never-finished-script was "we met this jedi survivor a few years back" + comments abt said survivor inflitrating nur 10 years ago yes it was that unsubtle) -- the idea was they had run into one another on a short mission in the past and then gone their separate ways!

[elvisqueso]

Pocahontas (1995): 3 times Pocahontas is compared to her mother + 1 time she's recognized on her own merits.

rambling lil meta under the cut

see, what's crazy about this whole situation is that it makes me wonder what exactly pocahontas's mom was like to have left such a massive impression on literally everyone in their community? there's that outright statement that "yeah, your mom's spirit is in the wind, basically, and our people venerate her as a spiritual guide (at the very least)." we know that she's the main connection between pocahontas and grandmother willow, and there's an implication in there that whatever leadership role she held in the village is expected to fall on pocahontas's shoulders someday.

i am so convinced that this role is some kind of spiritual leader/shaman position. wise-woman, priestess, whatever it's called. we don't see anyone else besides kekata performing any kind of spiritual rites, and even he isn't seen acting in direct contact with spiritual entities. kekata has to perform chants, provide offerings, and use a medium. pocahontas can just fuckign. talk to the things. how is she doing that? why isn't anyone else really able to do that? john smith could talk with grandmother willow but would he be able to if pocahontas wasn't there (i actually think he could but that's a different post)? has she ever done that for literally anybody else? nakoma never mentions grandmother willow. nobody mentions grandmother willow. apparently, the only two people who knew about her before pocahontas brought her new bf over was pocahontas and her mom.

i'm losing track of myself here, but the point is pocahontas is Highly aware of the ghost she's expected to live up to. and it sucks. and there's a lot more to her character arc about this but the eventual come-around to accepting that she has a responsibility to be more than herself and more than her mother's ghost is so heartbreaking because it also meant she had to let go of her soulmate at the same time so i c ry

[marclef]

Day 25. almost free. almost done.

it is Fake Peppino Friday... but for some reason, the sound of clucking is in the distance? that's strange..... perhaps one of these little Fakelings has something to do with it.

around a nearby town, strange rumors started popping up, about an old abandoned building that had stood vacant for a good few years. but odd sounds had been heard from within, the sounds of hard work, heavy objects being moved, and inhuman, almost cluck-like cries. nobody knew what it could have been, and none were brave enough to investigate. until... one day, out of nowhere, the building appeared somehow cleaner, and a large sign had been hung out at the front, with the bright, colorful words:

CHIK'N PLACE!!!

who was the culprit? well, one step inside this newly refurbished restaurant and you will be greeted by its very enthusiastic owner...

the often-excited, very sociable Poultrino! she started off as all of the other Fakelings, a strange, gooey blob-like creature with hunger and curiosity. but soon after going out into the world on their own, she stumbled across a runaway definitely wild chicken, which she chased after with great interest and then gobbled up with glee. but, the feathery snack awakened a strange feeling in her, such a delicious taste, she wanted to share it with all the world! and thus gave rise to the fifth and final Fakeling...

and now, all customers are happily welcomed at her humble Chik'n Place! there is chicken of all kinds there; chicken wings, fried chicken, chicken nuggets, living chickens, anything you could possibly want, as long as it is chicken! (and all VERY legally obtained, she wouldn't THINK of pilfering chicken from other establishments for her own....) and not to worry, she is very polite and welcoming to anyone who wishes to visit! as long as you are not also a chicken, or a tasty bug or rat.

their appearance and body are quite unique amongst the Fakes as well! and though she is still made out of simple Goop like the others, her "skin" is fairly soft and smooth, almost feeling like soft fuzz despite having no real feathers! her legs, tail, and "fleshy" parts are the same gooeyness as standard Fake Peppino though. despite her strange appearance, most customers assume she's simply in costume, and very few are any the wiser as to their true nature.

though, one more very important fact to mention... you didn't think they worked alone, did you? of course not, all that Chicken isn't going to serve itself! which is why the first person to enter her restaurant was taken happily hired as the first employee!! say hello to Sue, Poultrino's favorite and only employee!! (credit goes to my wonderful friend @plebbicinnabun-arts for coming up with her! 😊✨)

she helps prepare and serve many of the chicken dishes! (and makes sure that the stuff that's served is actually edible when possible...) and not to worry, her boss treats her with great care! she is paid well in a salary of both "human currency" and delicious chicken-based foods! it might just be very strange trying to explain her job to friends and family.

but together, these two help run the Chik'n Place, and Poultrino finds decent success at running a business! her Papa is very proud of her.

[lesbianchemicalplant]

starting to see posts about misogyny coercing women to engage in makeup/shaving/etc. and punishing us if we don't—which is true and horrific—but I'm starting to see posts about it referring to women's “natural state”, “default state”, “unaltered bodies”, “mutilating our bodies”, etc.

for the love of god please think for five seconds about why appealing to a presocial, transhistorical, Unaltered Natural Body is not good ground to stand on 💀

(hint: “trans people are mutilating the Natural Default State of their bodies beyond recognition” is a staple of transphobia)