#<- mostly sorry to myself

[the-magnus-protocol]

Tma + tmagp art masterpost

[cha1cedony]

Silver Linings Ch 8 tonight (unless something crazy happens to prevent me from finishing it today). Buuuut I have 2-ish scenes left, and I’m finally at the part of this fic I’ve been excited to write for months!

[clouvu]

Cooking up an older Clervie outfit design so I don't have to keep drawing her looking like her child self but Long

[mintaikk]

The Vees but what is even happening

[delulluart]

Papal Family Portrait with all 4 brothers

[spicyraeman]

pls ignore my oc and look at my beautiful wife

[jinikaris]

/ᐠ > ˕ マ Ⳋ birthday cat ⟢ 2024 birthday stream

[watzuu-lmk]

Self-indulgent shadowpeach doodles cuz im starving and my brain is vacant of anything but them

[babacontainsmultitudes]

🤔 Admittedly I was a little disappointed by the reveal (but certainly not surprised the foreshadowing was heavy in this episode lol), but not actually against how Beth (and Will) seem to be playing with it thus far- which is to say that I do think it has a lot of potential, and I suspect there's more to what we're seeing).

;) Big ol' ramble below

Mostly the theory has turned me off until now (at least insofar as I've witnessed it transpire in the fandom at large) because it struck me as so painfully ironic to see Trudy, a 1950s housewife, struggle to exist under the system that she's in, fail to fit the mold assigned to her, and be denied her personhood very literally for it (this being ironic insofar as how it mimics how she would have been treated back then). This and because frankly I just think she's a lot less interesting if she's fully a robot LOL, but I'll hopefully get to that in a bit.

Not that the hints at her mechanical nature and the relevance of Tucker's background were lost on me; I can appreciate why those would contribute to a plausible, fun and I think still mostly harmless theory (now fact). However, minus one or two specific posts I've seen on the matter (namely a recent one suggesting that if Trudy is a robot Beth is probably taking inspiration from The Stepford Wives, :( sorry person who made that post I couldn't find it I wanted to credit yoouuu), I've seen the theory just about exclusively presented in a manner that, rather than explore the metaphorical and political significance of Trudy being partially or fully mechanical, at best disregards the parts of her narrative that are at their core about sexism (among other related things), and at worst negates them entirely (i.e. Trudy only thinking and acting how she does because she's a robot malfunctioning and not because the world itself is causing harm and she rightfully wants something more than the role she was forced into, Trudy not even having any real thoughts and feelings of her own, etc.). I just think it kind of sucks to shove all those important things about her aside and say "actually, there's no person suffering here, she's just a robot" and perhaps worse yet to imply that she does have thoughts and feelings but because they result in Weird™ behavior it must be a problem with her code and not at all relate to what women were subjugated to during this point in American history.

CONVERSELY I don't think Trudy being a robot (or at least partially one) at least from what Beth and Will have presented us thus far, inherently suffers from any of these issues? First and foremost because Trudy definitely appears to possess sentience, thoughts, and emotions of her own, matters which immediately complicate her degree of personhood and don't inherently box her behavior in as a bug in her programming rather than an issue with the world she's been put in, quite the opposite in fact! I think they have a very solid groundwork laid out here to make a strong statement with Trudy's narrative (and perhaps ask the question of what is really malfunctioning here), all the more so since [I pull out a Rebecca Swallows-style conspiracy board] I don't think she's entirely robotic in nature? Actually you should just read Mack's tags in this post cause he has great thoughts on the matter (of which those are just some of them), but if I can direct your attention to one thing in particular, it would be Beth's fact (I *believe* from episode 2) about Trudy never graduating high school because of her essay where she suggested that "perhaps women could one day domesticate themselves", a statement that could of course be interpreted a number of ways but ultimately threatened the patriarchal status quo enough (in suggesting women's independence) to cost Trudy her diploma. Taken on its own this fact appears to contradict the theory that Trudy has always been robotic in nature, because it doesn't really make sense that Trudy would have been set up to go through high school (or school at all really) when Tucker's intention was/is for her to be the perfect housewife. You may then suggest that Trudy's memories of this are fabricated and not actually her lived experiences, in which case firstly perhaps you should reread my earlier point on the robot theory being used to actively negate and otherwise disregard the portions of Trudy's narrative that pertain to sexism and feminism, and secondly it really doesn't make any sense to me that Tucker would implant those kind of memories into Trudy's brain? To be completely honest if she's been a robot from the very beginning (rather than someone who became a cyborg, which is what I'm trying to suggest here), then I don't see why Tucker would program her with actual sentience in the first place (suspending my disbelief here with regards to the possibility of programming sentience to begin with). It seems much more likely to me then that Trudy was not always a robot, and instead altered by Tucker to force her into a role of subordination and remedy her """imperfections""". This option is significantly more interesting to me one, because it implies that Trudy has actually lived a life up until the present, full of its own complexities and strife (and dreams, and real actual memories worth exploring, etc.), and hence is not by any means "just a robot", and second because it amplifies the hypothetical statement being made on the lives of the real living women of the era and how they were treated and seen as being "in need of fixing" for not conforming to gender roles or otherwise acting "out of line" with what was expected of them.

OKAY THIS GOT OUT OF HAND SO I'M CUTTING MYSELF OFF HERE but I wanted to my share my current thoughts what with this ending and where I'm at so hopefully that was at least interesting to whoever has chosen to read through this one okay thank you byyyyyyyyye~

[hjemne]

"This is the way you want it? Are you sure?"

"I'm alright with how this all turned out. And I, uh, I'm grateful, ya know."

[deoidesign]

Btw just want to be clear that Time and Time Again is set to, and will if I don't pause, conclude in May 2025!

Webtoon didn't want to renew or give me any extra episodes so I'm trying to work with what I have. I'm sorry it's ending sooner than I'd like, it's been difficult to come to terms with and challenging to condense my plans.

You deserve a solid conclusion, and I've spent months writing to try and reach that. If there's anything you'd really like to see before it ends, do let me know in case I can (and want to) fit it in.

I'd rather not work with them again, and I hope I won't have to! But coming off of years being overworked and underpaid does not make that easy, to say the least...

I'm doing my best, and I hope you like what I have coming up.

[marblerose-rue]

basking in moonlight

[somnimagus]

did some vesperia chibis, i always forget how happy i get drawing these guys. i love them dearly

[id in alt text]

[kinokoshoujoart]

oops all rock (springtime edition)

i’ll be able to draw digitally again soon! ;w; in the meantime i’ve been scribbling a lot on paper…

could not wait for Soon, so i resorted to coloring it using the markup tool in default iphone photos app (don’t do that ever again)

[unstill]

here's the thing about ming. he was never going to get a redemption arc that would do a 180º on his characterization and he'd somehow become...worthy of joe or whatever. i don't understand how some people are still hung up on that, but what ming did is unforgivable. irredeemable. that's the point! his one regret is that what he did led to joe's death but ask him if he'd do it again...see ming is a cunning, selfish character who will do anything to have his way. look at how badly he wanted to prove (to himself?) that joe was there again. in that new body. he doesn't care about the means. (this is me cracking open his skull and making you all take a peak at his brain) he's such a compelling character to me. and here's the thing about my stand in. it was never a romance. it was never a love story. it is, above anything else probably, a tragedy. was the love there? yes. in a wrong person wrong time type of way. but it was there. it was there when ming did irredemeable things to joe. and it is still there, now. ming and joe were from the beginning two very lonely people finding solace in each other. and now they are two very damaged people who will find solace in each other again, regardless of how much ming has hurt joe and that's still the tragedy of it all!!! that ming could recognize joe even in death. and that joe would still gravitate towards the person who led him right into it.

with aaaall that said. i think ming's...redemption (ah. here we go) i think it will all come down to what he's willing to destroy for joe now. which in this case, will be his bond with tong. see the other thing about ming is that what moves him, what moves his character forward is what he feels for joe. whether you want to call it love or obsession or anything else. because against all odds, after years of searching and longing, he's got joe back by his side. and tong will try to mess with that...can't wait to see ming being very ming no actually i hope he shows his worst version of himself for this

[iknowwhereyousnoozeatnight]

lawlight get wet for that one meme! (in a funny way tho if you’re up for that)

oh nooooo someone moved that wet floor sign

still of the last frame bc it makes me compress files for gifs and that makes me mad >:(