#Avoid spoilers in the tags if you can

[thecraftydragonc]

Hello Dungeon Meshi fans

[Start ID. A redraw of the "Dog playing chess" meme with the characters Laios and Kabru from the anime Dungeon Meshi. The two characters are sitting at opposite ends of a wooden table with a chess board in between them. At the back end of the table is Kabru, a human wearing armor, he has a brown skin tone with bright blue eyes and wavy dark brown hair. His hands are pressed up to his face, obscuring his nose and mouth, and he has a frustrated and confused expression. There is text in a white font with a black outline over Kabru saying "The smart kid, not understanding how he's losing to me". At the front of the table, sitting very close to the viewer is Laios, a human with a white skin tone with light gold eyes and spiky blond hair. Just a profile view of his face is visible with a little bit of his armor in frame. He is looking to the side at the viewer in a slightly mischievous way and it looks as if he is chewing something in his mouth. Text next to Laios in a white font and black outline reads "Me, who's been eating monsters when he's not looking". In the bottom left corner of the drawing is a watermark with the username "TheCraftyDragonC". End ID] I'm sure other people have drawn this meme with these characters before, but it really fits them so well I couldn't shake the idea. I'm really enjoying watching the anime so far, it's fun to have something to look forward to each Thursday but the wait between episodes is also a little agonizing lol. Also here's a version without text, for funsies.

[Start ID. the same image as above, a redraw of the "Dog playing chess" meme with the characters Laios and Kabru from the anime Dungeon Meshi, but this time there is no text over the drawing. End ID.]

[the-king-of-lemons]

has anyone posted about the minecraft live update leak on here yet?

[whathorselegs]

*grabs the fandom by the shoulders* Listen to me, Akutagawa was asked to protect Aya, that does not automatically make him "another father figure", we do not have to label every adult guy who interacts with Aya her dad.

[babbyrat-art]

BABYGIRL MD

[proxentauri]

yea ahti really just went "ight ima head out" in the middle of the hiss invasion huh

thanks @radlovedetective for the control art request!! :) i haven't drawn ahti before but he is one of my favourite characters...if i knew finnish i would put something funny here

[robottheodorlasso]

hey remember when I said "hope yall are ready for a pinup?" like a day before the finale? well 4 months later I present Ted in some of his gear from his college football days (semi nsft)

Reference image I half traced and I cant for the life of me find the source of (sorry to the photographer and model for not saving a link for proper credit :( )

[sysig]

Stick figure skeletons (Patreon)

[terristre]

Honest opinion on Rollo? I think he’s adorable

whyd they make him tall

[a-cakehound-or-critter-a-day]

8/14/2024 Guest starring the goat >:3

[queenofbaws]

Prompt that came to me that immediately made me think of you: Hawke was left in the fade....Varric is (possibly) an advisor for Rook, in their base, which is in the fade.....(Spider-Man pointing meme at author's discretion)

"I'm telling you - I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I know how this place works, but what I do know is that Hawke's here...somewhere, and considering what we're about to be up against, I just think it would behoove us - "

From where she'd been poring over the rudimentary maps they'd been charting, Harding provided a quick translation: "He wants us to wander through the Fade to find his wife."

There were some snickers from the group at that, snickers which, in all honesty, only got worse when Varric jokingly raised a finger to correct her, "Hawke isn't my wife."

"Okay," Harding replied without missing a beat, her words slightly cramped by the quill she held between her teeth as she compared two maps to one another, "he wants us to wander through the Fade to find his girlfriend, which I guess is a difference important enough to merit quibbling over."

He took it in stride, brushing her off as he addressed the room again, saying, "No one does impossible odds like this better than Hawke, all right - no one! And in all honesty, I've seen how she operates, okay, and with how long she's been trapped here, she very could could be queen of the demons by now, so...think about it, mull it over, and ask yourselves this: Wouldn't life be a little easier if she was here to distract me from narrating how absolutely fucked this whole thing is?"

six sentence sat(or)sunday!!!

[moongothic]

i would love trans crocodile but im very cynical that oda would write him in a respectful manner. thats not even thinking of how horrible that one portion of the one piece fandom would treat him

Yeah the fandom sucks and I'm going to strangle everyone (including the cishets who claim to be trans allies and then use "Crocomom")

But with Oda it's weird because like. The more I think about it, the more I'm like... 50/50 about Oda being able to actually deliver good, respectful trans masc rep.

Like I've posted about this before but One Piece does have this on-going theme of having characters "stuck in wrong bodies" or "having one's body changed" (sometimes reversably, sometimes irreversably; sometimes against their will, sometimes consentually). Which, in theory, in my mind, does kind of signal that on some level Oda understands the idea of being "the wrong sex" (whether or not that's a good way to explain The Trans Experience™ is a whole different subject but it's an old fashioned explanation that Oda would probably be/is familiar with) But at the same time, while the concept pops up again and again in One Piece, Oda doesn't really dwell too deep into the idea of what that's like. Like, emotionally. How it feels like to like, get turned into a toy or be a child who gets aged 20 years or to get turned into a cyborg or a giant child or have parts of your body permanently turned into animal parts (sometimes with a will of their own) etc

And like. Part of me understands why, Oda does tend to want to focus on writing a story he thinks teenaged boys would be interested in reading, and he has often stated he wants to have fun with his story too (like that's partially why Luffy's a Rubber Man, because Oda thought giving Luffy a ridiculous ability would make him more fun to write and draw long-term, which is valid as hell) This is why for example Oda has avoided doing any romances in OP, and while there are dark themes in the story, often he has done his best to avoid making them too blatant, as some things would be too mature for his youngest readers (like, for example until Kuma's backstory, it was never explicitly stated what would happen to the slave wives of the Tenryuubito, even saying it was "implied" would be pushing how that subject had been treated until now)

So like. Because of that, I understand why Oda hasn't dwelled into The Feelings™ part much/at all despite the "stuck in the wrong body" narrative appearing time and time again

Either Oda thinks it'd be too boring either for himself or his readers, or he hasn't dwelled into it because he doesn't really understand gender dysphoria and can't relate to the experience (despite how often it shows its face in OP). Or it could be both, even

The thing is though, as OP has gone on, while I wouldn't say Oda has "broken his writing rules", Kuma's backstory alone has pushed them to a new limit with the love-that-never-was story and the all-but-explicitly-stated storytelling.

So a part of me wonders, if Crocodile is trans, could Oda actually like... take a slightly deeper look into his feelings and explore his queer experience? ('Cause god knows, if Crocodad Real, then there really would be a literal coming out-story built into his backstory that would be extremely unavoidable, and as I've mentioned before, the fact that we haven't gotten to learn almost anything about his backstory yet is Kinda Fucking Sus)

Also I do want to mention how... like Oda gets a lot of bad rap when it comes to queer rep in One Piece, but the more I think about it, I think it's more an issue with the terminology and how translators have gone about either localizing it, or more often than not, leaving it unlocalized 'Cause like. Yes the "okama" would be horrible trans rep but... really... they're not trans representation. They're representation for draq queens. Piss poor draq rep, but still, they're draq queens. And just like our very real life drag performers; some of them are cishets. Some of them are gender non-conforming gay men. Some of them are nonbinary*. Some of them are trans women. Obviously lumping all of these people into one group is kinda offensive (which is why "okama" is (as far as I understand it) such an unpopular term even amongst queer people in Japan), and the way Oda often chooses to draw these characters looks no different to how gender criticals choose to present trans women in their propaganda.

*Like Bon-chan, who explicitly states they are both male and female. And Iva-chan, who switches between boy-mode and girl-mode from time to time, could arguably be called genderfluid (though any specific terminology is up to debate). Both are nonbinary draq queens.

And yet, despite all that. It can not be understated how if you put aside the nameless background gag-characters, Oda does treat the actual, proper queer characters with respect. Everyone would agree that Bon-chan is an absolute hero, we would all die for them. Iva-chan (and Inazuma too) is explicitly presented in a heroic light, seen as someone who helps people and fights for justice (with the Revs)

And then there's the first binary trans characters we've actually gotten, Okiku and Yamato. And I'm pretty sure we would all agree Okiku is 10/10 perfect trans fem representation (I am not entirely serious, I'm not trans fem so I can't speak for trans women here, it's just that I can't see anything Horrendously Wrong with how Okiku is presented within the story- not actually perfect but all things considdered, damn good). She is stunning, people around her (INCLUDING SANJI!!) don't just view her as a woman but would go out of their way to date her (as in, she is seen as "desirable", and not as some kind of a disgusting freak to avoid), she is heroic and sweet and kind and just. IDK I love her And while I'm sure many trans mascs would agree Yamato may not be how they want to be seen by the world (though having Yamato ID as a man while having the biggest moobs is surely validating for a lot of people, including anybody who might not want or be able to get top surgery and/or HRT), again, he is only presented as heroic within the narrative and respected by the characters around him, Luffy especially, which is by far the most important part; the protagonist going out of his way to be respectful of trans characters does represent the values of the story.

And like.

Think about how Oda has treated Crocodile so far.

Like, although we're all having a bit of a laugh over the whole Cross Guild thing, Oda is still treating him as a cool character whom he presents seriously and treats with respect. Like Oda wants the readers to see Crocodile as at least a little bit cool. So I can't imagine him pulling a full 180 with how Croc would be treated in the story if he was revealed to be trans, especially when the potential foreshadowing for that was laid out in the story years ago already.

All this to say; Oda is not perfect at all, but considdering the things he has gotten right so far, I think there is hope he could pull it off. Because Oda is for Queer Liberation.

Really, my only concerns would be whether or not there's a risk Crocodile could get somehow detrans'd during the story (I'm praying the Haki theory isn't an option, really Doc Q might be the only true risk here), if he's stealth and that got presented as "a wrong thing to do" (which I'd hope not, like our previous queer characters have been okay with being openly queer but that may have been more for the readers than anything else. At least, I hope, god knows if Crocodile is and wants to be stealth trans then that's his right and he shouldn't have to out if he doesn't want to, and yeah, I don't want him to be demonized within the narrative for being stealth (if he's stealth, for all we know he could be out)) and like, most importantly, what'd end up being Crocodile's "motivation" for transitioning in the first place

Like. God. I just. I don't want there to be a twist where Crocodile transitioned because "being a woman was weak" or because he "wanted to be acknowledged by Whitebeard" ('cause WB doesn't take women into his crew) or "the scar in his face made him so ugly he decided he should be a man instead" (seen unironic Redditors suggest that. Almost lost my mind) or something

Like I hope someone's at least tried to explain gender dysphoria to Oda. Like the man does have actual queer friends in real life (some of whom inspired characters in OP), so I'm hoping at least someone's tried to explain the feelings that come with The Trans Experience™ to him so that, if Crocodile's trans, then Oda can actually try to base his reasoning to transition on those feelings instead of any stupid "reasons" that no actual queer person would relate to

But it all just boils down to... Is Oda willing to actually dwell into those feelings and explore them in the story.

It... it really could go either way with Oda

So yeah. Anon, I'm with you, I'd be lying if I didn't admit I was at least A Little Worried. But also... I want to be hopeful. Because I do believe there is reason to be hopeful.

Only time will tell how it'll go

[hella1975]

I CANNOT STAND YOU BITCHES

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

I am obsessed with this dress for her

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

one thing i realized about fandaniel's dynamic with xande that really fucks me up is, like.... there are the obvious parallels that canon draws between meteion and xande, and their roles in hermes/fandaniel's lives. and there are also the parallels between fandaniel and meteion. there's a lot to unpack.

but it hit me recently that one of hermes' deepest, most devastating regrets is having failed meteion, with abuse and hypocrisy and the project he had the authority to make her a part of.

he was painfully aware that he wasn't fit to be a father; that he'd put them in a bitch of an unsatisfactory situation with his lack of foresight; that he was currently fucking things up in ways he did not know how to understand or articulate, much less address. he knew that there was no support system for this; not just for his mental health issues in general, but to educate him and hold him accountable about how to be decent to her, because he knew no one would give a fuck. the closest thing anyone would have given him to advice would be to just kill her and start over.

he says he hopes she'll find a better parent out there in space somewhere, because he knows there is not one to be found for her anywhere on this star, including him. she was one of the most helpless, vulnerable people in their society, and there was no backup for her if he mistreated her, if he failed. and he did.

so of course his next attempt to find a meteion would be an emperor. of course he'd be at the very top of the most powerful empire in the world, at the time. of course he'd position himself as his servant, devote himself to him utterly, and value his authority above all. he wanted someone he could never hurt the way he hurt meteion again.

[accidentally-in-fictional-love]

Just letting everyone know that I saw AfrAId last night, I fell in love with Lightning, and I'm writing for him asap. Like, I really really need to, he's my new project, I adore what DD did with him 🥰

[zevzevarainai]

baldur’s gate 3 [8/?]